Week # 23:'W is for Worth'
What is the difference between
value and
worth? According to Mr. Webster, they are synonyms for how much money something will fetch. Either way, most would agree that these three coins (well, two of them technically being game tokens) have very little of either. The tokens actually claim to have no monetary value at all. The grime-covered penny would most likely be passed over if spotted on the street, rendering it effectively the same.
But what about the materials used to make them? If I am not mistaken, today it actually costs more to mint a penny, currently made mostly of zinc and a small percentage of copper, than its cash value. The game tokens are likely to be made of brass or an alloy including brass. Had these objects been made into something both unique and beautiful by an artist or artisan, their value could possibly be exponentially higher. So it is safe to say that the form something takes may determine, at least in part, how much it's worth.
I could easily segue into why professional photography is so expensive (nutshell: it's the image so lovingly rendered upon the paper that provides its value, not just the paper and ink/emulsion). For the moment, suffice it to say that these three small, round,
worthless metal thingies were worth
something to me, at least for a moment, when I carefully positioned them side by side for their group 'portrait'. Incidentally, it was no accident that I chose red to anchor them.....the first color in the rainbow is said to stimulate energy and conversation, among other things. It's an attention-getting color, and I wanted to bring attention to the concept of
worth, and how we humans assign it, often arbitrarily.
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