Some pirate booty for the family coffers. My lustrous itty-bitty 1/20 oz gold unicorn is killing it with her miniature awesome-ness.

Merry Christmas to meeeeeee!

So I’ve plumped up the family coffers with a new member to my coin collection. (Remember my recent purchase: an Isle of Man 1 oz gold Angel coin? Hey, that one was not my fault. Discover card practically twisted my arm with their cash back incentive, those cheeky muffs.)

This latest addition has been dubbed LuLu the Unicorn and she is sheer miniature awesome-ness.

My mystical unicorn coin is a teensy 1/20 ounce of gold, roughly the size of my pinky nail, and she arrived snugly sealed in the original packaging from the Mint, accompanied by a tiny scroll of authenticity scribed in Chinese. I can’t read it, of course, so maybe it’s really a treasure map to a hidden portal leading to a magical dimension, full of real dragons waiting to rend away our fleshy bits! And unicorns to slay the demons. Or maybe it’s really a tiny magic carpet for other miniature unicorns to frolic on and all cruise around racing each other. Because even though LuLu is only a bust portrait I am pretty sure she lacks wings.

Regardless.

The Chinese Mint released their mystical Unicorn coin series from 1994 until 1997, which features different depictions of Qi’lin (the Asian Unicorn) on the obverse and the Western Unicorn on the reverse. LuLu is from the 1996 breed and eventually I hope to collect more of these rare coins from this limited series. I do find the Chinese artwork and detail on these coins stunningly beautiful. Also it would be neat to gradually hoard accumulate a unicorn coin collection for Lexi. However, although LuLu herself is not a rarity, some of her more elusive coined cousins can cost upward of thousands of dollars.

So that is LuLu, the teensy gold Unicorn, and she’s now all mine. My preciousss.

Isn’t she swell?

=^..^=

Okay. I totally get that I should not be this excited over bills—especially now that my finances are in flux—but to be honest, I was completely over the moon to pay my Discover Black card bill this month. Which is totally a refreshing change from the twisted funk that bill paying usually puts me in.

It all started a few weeks ago when a promotional offer from Discover card arrived in the mail and was stashed on the coffee table for future consideration/shredding. And then for days the offer sat, glaring menacingly at me.

How dare you neglect me, you troglodyte? it hissed. I am to be used and indulged in!

The offer from Discover was to spend $1,000 by October with my newly minted Black card and then receive $100 cash back from my purchase. So finally I spent the obligatory $1,000 $1,750 and immediately paid the bill off in full.

Today my checking account was credited $100. Oh, and THIS arrived in the mail from a private collector:

Isle of Man 1 oz. gold Angel coin. My preciousss.

• Essentially I just received $100.00 off the spot price of gold for this remarkable Isle of Man gold coin, with the total cost being $1,650.

• I am fairly confident my gold Angel will appreciate (or retain its value) over the next few years much better than having those funds sit in a savings account with paltry interest rates. Eventually this piece will be converted into more tangible financial assets (dividend-paying stocks, income property, capital toward my own business, etc.)

• And if gold plummets and the price shrivels for the next twenty years, Lexi just inherited a gorgeous gold piece to use at her discretion at some point in the future.

Well played, Discover. Well played.
(Stop sending me offers, now. Please.)

=^..^=

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• Overspending Alert – I Totally Blame the Duck!
• Boo To Those Sneaky Bank Fees