No really, can they? If you leave a Kshs. 20 coin out in the rain all by itself, cold and lonely, when you wake up the next day, if it’ll survive the many attempts by passers-by to claim ownership of it, will it rust? Ever thought about it?

[caption id="attachment_4223" align="alignleft" width="138" caption="The coin is made of cuppro-nickel on the inner part and nickel-brass on the outer part ∣Source:centralbank.go.ke"][/caption]

The answer may surprise you. No, it will not. The fifty cent (no relation to the US rapper) and one shilling coin are made of steel and plated with nickel. The five shilling, ten and twenty  shilling coins are a little bit different: as you very well know, they have two colours on them, two-tone as it were, because they are made of two metals. Aluminium-bronze forms the outer ring while cuppro-nickel forms the inner part. The (newest and largest) forty shilling coin is extra-special as it is made of cuppro-nickel on the inner part and nickel-brass on the outer part. If you can remember your primary school science, you will recall that nickel,bronze and brass do not rust.

So that coin that you've been trying to lose will survive if you leave it exposed to the mercy of the elements. As Gloria Gaynor would sing in 1978, the Kenyan coin will survive.