The Coin Question

My two cents on the power of change.

I suppose technically, I’m a numismatist.

You see, ever since I was a kid, I’ve collected coins.

Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters. My favorite is the English Pound. No coin feels better in your hand.

We hardly ever see coins (let alone cash) in our current, nearly-entirely electronic money world.

But I still have a bunch.

In fact, when I was a CEO, I kept some coins in a pouch on my desk.

I would use these coins when I interviewed candidates for a job.

At some point during the conversation, I’d put the pouch in front of the person and ask them to pick out a coin.

It didn’t matter which coin they chose, as long as the nickel or dime had a visible date on it.

1999? 2003? 1978...

I would then ask the person to read out the date they saw on the coin. And then tell me something about their life that happened during that particular year.

One candidate read from a quarter that said, “2016.”

He then proceeded to tell me all about that year. It was special to him.

He told me that was the year he had moved from Australia to New York. He became incredibly animated as he went on to tell me about all of his discoveries and experiences.

The things he loved. The things his wife loved. The things he found either confounding or fascinating.

That one coin. That one date. And that one year’s description told me so much about this one person.

I would also bring the coin pouch as a way to “break the ice” at social functions.

One function in particular was the Summer lunch I used to do with our interns.

I’d take our interns to somewhere like PJ Clarke’s. We’d go upstairs to Clarke’s quieter room — “The Sidecar.”

Once everyone was seated around the table, I had to figure out how to start a conversation. #awks

The Coin Question to the rescue!

Same rules. Pick a coin. Find the year. Tell a story about yourself.

The best stories came when one of these 20-year olds would pick a coin with, say, a 1982 date.

Clearly, they weren’t alive then. How would they navigate the date? What would they do with the story? Would they talk about their parents? Would they pull something from history? Would they make something up…or pivot from “1982” and tell us something about another date.

You can tell a lot about a person by what they tell you about a quarter.

Incidentally, the candidate from Australia was hired and has contributed incredibly to the company.

I bumped into him at the agency holiday party last week.

He told me that the Coin Question was one of the reasons he joined the agency.

He said to me, “If a company is that creative and thoughtful when they interview people, imagine what kind of work they can produce.”

Penny for your thoughts?