Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 17, 2007

FORT NORMAN - Running at the Northern store in Tulita, Greg Turnbull and his wife were finding a few odd things turning up in the cash register.

Lina Fayine-Turnbull shows off a collection of coins she and her husband Greg Turnbull have been collecting for the past seven years. The couple has found foreign coins in their cash register at the Northern Store in Tulita, from as far as Cayman Islands, Fiji, and Australia. - photo courtesy Greg Turnbull

Along with the usual collection of dimes, nickels, quarters, loonies and toonies Turnbull was coming across money from far away places that somehow found its way to the tiny fly-in community.

"We live thousands of kilometres from any international borders," said Turnbull. "You wouldn't expect a lot of other countries' money, would you? Yet, every once in a while something turns up."

Having started to collect these rare finds seven years ago, Turnbull now boasts a collection of currencies from around the world, showing that this little town has a few international connections.

The collection includes French and Belgium francs, British pence, Euros, dimes from Mexico and Brazil, Quarters from the Netherlands and Trinidad, nickels from the Czech Republic and even from 1980's West Germany.

The mysterious roots of the coins is easier to solve for some. With one of the community's teachers coming from Trinidad and Tobago Turnbull imagines he's given them out to a few of the students. Some coins, from places like Dominican Republic and other vacation hot spots, are also easier to expect.

The presence of some, however, remain a mystery to Turnbull, like coins from Fiji, Australia, and the Cayman Islands. Unusual coins like American loonies and fifty cent pieces, old silver dollars, a 1945 "V" for victory nickel and its' 2005 commemorative have all found their way into the store's cash register.

Others are not even currency at all, like Casino arcade tokens and one from a circus.

"It really makes you wonder how all these coins from all over the planet find their way into the pockets of someone in a small Northern town," said Turnbull.

Turnbull started collecting the coins in Fort Resolution, where he lived with his wife Lina Fayine-Turnbull before moving to Tulita.