The Coin

The Coin is a story written and drawn by Don Rosa. It features Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, Miss Quackfaster, Gladstone Gander, Elvira Duck, Gus Goose, Daisy Duck, Gyro Gearloose, Little Helper, The Beagle Boys, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, the Junior Woodchucks (including Billy Smith) and, in a flashback, Goldie O'Gilt.
==Plot==
Scrooge McDuck gives his nephew and employee Donald Duck a quarter, one which he first received at the Dawson Emporium in 1896, to buy a newspaper with. He soon remembers something else about the coin that he hadn't thought of before and realizes that he can't part with it, though it may be too late, as Donald has already left to purchase the newspaper. He rushes after Donald to retrieve his coin, but an argument between Donald and Gladstone Gander has caused the coin to fall out of Donald's hands. Scrooge tells his nephew that if he doesn't retrieve the coin, he'll be fired. Donald tries to step on the coin to stop it from rolling away, but a car runs over his foot, and the coin disappears.
The car that drove over Donald's foot was Grandma Duck's electric car, and the coin gets stuck in one of its tires. Gus Goose tries to get it out and accidentally causes the wheel to explode, sending the coin flying into the air and into Daisy Duck's mixer, which breaks when it is turned on with the coin in it. Daisy gives it to Donald to fix, and Donald takes it to Gyro Gearloose.
Little Helper finds the coin in the mixer, but Gyro doesn't see it because he's too busy talking with Scrooge on the telephone about inventing something that will locate the lost coin. Little Helper removes the coin, and it lands between two wires, connecting them and activating an anti-gravity ray, which zaps everything on the table, including the coin.
The coin flies out of the workshop, into a Beagle Boy's mouth, and out again. Manipulated by Gladstone's luck, the effects of the ray eventually wear off over Gladstone's hand, where it lands. Gladstone spends the coin on a ticket for the Junior Woodchucks raffle, the prize of which is the cake that Daisy was trying to make with her mixer.
Later, with the proceeds from the raffle, the Junior Woodchucks go on a trip to McDuck Tower. Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck give the coin (the last left over from the raffle proceeds) to Billy Smith to spend on a telescope since his family is too poor to buy him binoculars. However, the telescope is out of order, so the coin falls through the bottom of the telescope and falls down the Tower. It falls into the sewer, where the Beagle Boys are trying to break into the Money Bin through an underground entrance. The coin falls into 176-617's collar, and when he enters the Bin it falls out and activates an alarm.
Donald and Daisy call the police, who promptly arrest the Beagle Boys just as Scrooge is returning to the Bin from a walk. As things settle down, Scrooge sees the coin. Picking it up, he reminisces about it - one of the very coins with which he paid Goldie O'Gilt in 1897, which she refused and threw back at him.
===References===
*The pile of money in Scrooge McDuck's Money Bin is shown in the first panel to be 98 feet deep, if the depth gauge is to be believed.
*Scrooge received an American 1896 quarter dollar in March 1897 as change from the Dawson Emporium. He later used that coin, among others, to attempt to pay Goldie O'Gilt for helping him on his Klondike gold mine, though she refused the payment.
*The combination for Scrooge McDuck's vault is 36-19-52-61.
*Billy Smith is shown to be a member of the Junior Woodchucks from a poor family.
===Continuity===
*Scrooge McDuck's flashback to 1897 is taken directly from Back to the Klondike (1953).
==Behind the scenes==
The Coin was first published in the Finnish Aku Ankka #18/2000. The story was first printed in English in Uncle Scrooge #323 in November 2003. It was written and drawn by Don Rosa, though a couple of the panels in the story were taken from Carl Barks's drawings in Back to the Klondike. According to Rosa's commentary in The Don Rosa Library Vol. 9, he initially wrote the story sometime in the mid-1990's, but it was initially rejected by Egmont because it did not focus on a specific character and was considered unfunny.
Category:Stories
Category:Comic Stories
Category:Don Rosa stories
Category:2000 stories
Category:Scrooge McDuck stories
Category:Donald Duck stories
Category:Gladstone Gander stories
Category:Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck stories
Category:Gus Goose stories
Category:Grandma Duck stories
Category:Daisy Duck stories
Category:Gyro Gearloose stories
Category:Little Helper stories
Category:Beagle Boys stories
Category:Junior Woodchucks stories
Category:Goldie O'Gilt stories
Category:Billy Smith stories