Of Ducks, Dimes and Destinies

Of Ducks, Dimes and Destinies
Scan of the first page
Story code	D 91249
Alternative title	Of Ducks and Dimes and Destinies
Story	Don Rosa
Ink	Don Rosa
Hero	Scrooge McDuck
Pages	15
Layout	4 rows per page
Appearances	Scrooge McDuck Donald Duck Huey, Dewey and Louie Magica De Spell
First publication	June 12, 1995

Of Ducks Dimes and Destinies, or Of Ducks and Dimes and Destinies, even though it was not originally a part of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, it became Part 0.

Plot

Scrooge McDuck is dining at Donald's house. Donald comments about the fact that, even though Donald never charges Scrooge when he eats there, Scrooge charges Donald when Donald eats at Scrooge's house. Scrooge says it's because he entertains his nephews about his adventures.

Huey, Dewey and Louie then ask him to tell how he got the Number One Dime. He says it's not so interesting and tells he was then a shoe-shine boy in Glasgow in 1877. The boys then ask how Scrooge earned an American dime in Scotland. Scrooge himself never understood that and keeps telling the story, unaware that Magica De Spell was watching everything from her crystal ball. She starts thinking about how a 10-year-old Scrooge wouldn't be so tough as his present-day self and remembers about a magic candle that has the power of sending someone back in time for one hour. She uses the candle to send herself to the Glasgow of the day Scrooge McDuck earned his first dime.

In Glasgow, she doesn't seem to find Scrooge as soon as she thought so she decides to take a cab. Then she meets Howard Rockerduck, future father of John D. Rockerduck, then a single American man who was looking for a wife in Glasgow. He tells her about his life, while she looks at some street kids wondering if Scrooge is among them. Howard, seeing it as a chance to impress Magica, throws some coins to the kids. Magica makes the connection: American + Coin + Poor kids... and jumps after the coins hoping to find the Number One Dime and actually finds and recognizes it from the other times she had it on her hands. The Dime is a U.S. 1875 "Seated Liberty" Dime. (Note: The date is hard to read in the comic and almost looks like 1877, that series having unusually curvy date fonts, but the author, Don Rosa, confirmed it at a Convention in 2006, his explanation being (a) 1875 seemed like a 'round' figure, and (b) it was not unlikely to find a 2-year old coin so far from its point of origin, but a same-year coin would be less-likely to be found so far away.)

Unfortunately for her, Matilda McDuck has found it first and the presence of a police officer at the moment kept Magica from stealing it. Magica tries to buy the dime (she obviously forgot it won't have powers before being the first coin earned by the world's richest man) but Matilda, along with her sister, Hortense McDuck, decides to give it to their father. Upon seeing him, Magica believes Scrooge somehow followed her back in time and says she'll fight him through the ages. The man asks her to calm down and identifies himself as Fergus McDuck and states the only Scrooge he knows is his 10-year-old son. Fergus tells his daughters this dime might be the inspiration Scrooge needs to focus his energy in the work.

Before he puts his plan to work, Magica tries to buy the dime from him, but he says his lad's future is more important (he was actually waiting until being sure she would reach her top price). Magica says there's something in her purse he would find more interesting. out of curiosity, Fergus looks, only to be hit by foof bombs while Magica steals the dime and thinks he would be interested in knowing she always carries foof bombs. Fergus then starts to chase Magica like Scrooge does in present time. Magica once again "borrows" Howard's cab and thinks it's enough to lose Fergus, but it's not so easy to escape from a McDuck after stealing money from him.

Fergus gets a wagon and eventually reaches Magica. After going through all of this, Howard decides to return to America. In a last effort, she reminds him she's a woman and he probably wouldn't lay his hands on her. Fergus proves her wrong. She asks him why is that dime so special for him and he tells her how the McDucks love money and how her question makes him think she never met any McDucks before.

After that, Fergus meets Burt the ditchdigger and asks him a favor: he would ask Scrooge to shine his shoes and give the dime as payment. As Fergus (correctly) believes, Scrooge will feel fooled (since American dimes cannot be spent in Scotland) and will keep the dime as a reminder not to be fooled again. After Fergus and his daughters leave, Magica, who "can't seem to alter history", decides to "twist" it. She made a deal with Burt: she'll give two shillings in exchange for the dime; he keeps one and gives the other one to Scrooge. Burt agrees and Magica is very happy (she forgot this "twist" will turn one of these shillings into Scrooge's first coin) until she accidentally drops the dime, which is found by an honest shoe-shine boy who gives a speech about the importance of keeping every single dime and his hopes of earning his own dimes very soon.

After recovering the dime, Magica senses something familiar in this speech and realizes the boy is Scrooge McDuck. Since she still have to wait a little more than half an hour until being sent back to present time, she watches Scrooge polishing Burt's shoes. Scrooge faints after finishing the job and Burt decides to spend the two schillings on a store next door, so Scrooge still hasn't earned any money. Magica laughs at how Scrooge will have to wait until he finally earns his first dime, until it finally makes her understand that, since Scrooge still hasn't earned the dime, it's not yet the first coin earned by the world's richest duck. Using her last seconds in the past, she gives him the dime, so history went back to normal.

Back in present, Scrooge, still unaware of how Magica almost changed history, still thinks the history of how he earned his first dime isn't very interesting and, upon seeing his current situation, says he would like to thank the one responsible for him to have the dime. Hearing it from Mt. Vesuvius, Magica says: "Curse you. You're welcome."

External links

• Of Ducks, Dimes and Destinies at the INDUCKS