The Mystery of Fair's Fair

The clues: A shiny beaver pendant, a coin, a pair of tap shoes with a business card from the Ethel Bruneau Tap School The file label: "Fair's Fair". The investigation: Kyla pulls out the first clue: a small, shiny beaver that looks like a piece of jewelry. When E.B. finds the next clue, he thinks they've struck it rich. It's a coin marked a hundred thousand! The kids' minds race as they imagine everything they could buy with the money. But there's a mystery to solve first. And a third clue that's a real puzzler: tap shoes with a business card from a tap school. Time to investigate! Kyla does an image search on the beaver and it leads her to the Bank of Canada Museum. There, she discovers that the clue is a reproduction of something called a trade silver beaver. She sees some original trade silver beavers and finds out that during the early fur trading days, about 400 years ago, European settlers melted their silver coins and had them made into decorative items like the beaver. First Nations people had no use for coins, but beautiful items like necklaces and bracelets made of silver were valuable to them. So they traded fur pelts for things like trade silver beaver. Kyla also finds out that in ancient times before money was invented, people used a bartering system to trade crops and farm animals with each other. E.B. heads to a coin collector's shop hoping to cash in the clue coin for a hundred thousand dollars. His bubble is burst when he discovers that this 1999 Turkish lira coin is only worth about four dollars to a collector. So much for their dreams of mansions and yachts! E.B. finds out that foreign currency isn't necessarily worth face value in your own country. But sometimes, in the world of coin collecting, a coin can be worth more than the number written on it. Especially if it's very rare like the 1859 Canadian penny he sees at the coin shop that's worth up to $15,000! E.B. also gets to use an old-fashioned coin press to make a commemorative coin. Kyla was asked to bring a cane and a funky hat to the tap dance school. When she meets the dance teacher she discovers that Hermione used to trade exotic recipes with the owner of the school in exchange for tap lessons. Kyla finds out that trading items or services is something that people still do today, just like in ancient times when people traded crops and animals. In exchange for the hat and cane that the teacher needed as props for a show, Kyla gets a tap lesson!