I have mentioned this here before, a time or two, in the nearly five years we have been based in Abu Dhabi.

How I have never seen a coin on the street, or the sidewalk. Not one. Not in nearly five years. Not even when I used to walk outside more than a little.

When I jogged back in the U.S., I would see coins nearly every time out. Pennies, certainly. Maybe even a dime. The occasional quarter.

But here?

Nothing.

Until today.

We had just come out of the elevator, two floors below the street, and I was approaching the button that unlocks the doors that lead into the parking area.

And I saw a glitter on the ground.

Something about shiny silver-y things draw the eye. It probably wasn’t even about “Oh, I think I may see some loose change.” It was the notion of a bright color, I think.

And as I focused in, I was almost did a Warner Bros. cartoon double-take. “Wha … what?”

I was looking at a one dirham coin. Just the other side of the window.

It actually passed through my head, right after “that’s the first coin I’ve seen in this country” that “maybe someone else will pick it up before I can get to it!”

Even though I was 10 feet from it — five to get to the door, five to come back to the coin.

Actually, I did something else before picking up the coin. I pointed to it. We have often talked — or I have, anyway — about the no-coins-on-the-ground thing, and I wanted to share the moment. “Look! A coin.”

I have been carrying it around since.

At the office, I bored a co-worker with a sort of false drama. “I am going to show you a rare and precious thing.”

And then the guy just looked at the dirham … and shrugged. Even my back story (not one coin in five years!) didn’t seem to impress him. Though he did say, “Not even one of the little ones?” Meaning the 25 fils coin, the smallest in circulation, and worth about 8 cents.

Nope. Not even that one. But now I had a dirham, which is 27.2 U.S. cents, and you can buy things here with that. For four dirhams, you can get a falafel sandwich. Most soft drinks are one dirham.

I have often thought about the lack of coins on the ground, and my best explanation is … money means a lot, here. To many of the expats, the ones who come from ultra-poor countries like Bangladesh, coins are not meant to be left lying. People are careful with their money.

Second, this is a country that employs sweepers. Little guys in lime-green suits who have a broom and a dust pan and walk up and down streets picking up trash. I imagine they normally get to loose coins before the rest of us do. And it’s just as well, because a dirham is real money to them.

So, that’s over with. The “never seen a coin” thing … done. And the proof is in my pocket.