Picking them up, folk consider it very lucky with the belief that fortune will soon come to them. From that gleaning hobby, archaeologists and biologists have named a coin, which is not actually money, a “dollar” in the sand, after finding them lying along the coast.

At first, people thought that the dollars in the sand were real money because they had slightly rounded shapes, silvery white iridescent and holes in the surface. Thought to be treasures, hundreds of years ago, sailors and tourists brought them back to the city, presenting them to the king as a discovered treasure.

Later, they learned that they were just the bones of a creature living in the sea, which when they died would be petrified like a coin. And they call them the currency, even the currency of the mermaids in the mythical city of Atlantis.

Although they cannot be traded, they are still very popular because of their unique beauty, glossiness and can be colored as jewelry and display objects.

The sea dollar is a species of sea urchin, which belongs to the suborder Clypeesteroida and includes at least a dozen different subspecies on all five continents. Originally very hairy animals, crawling to eat crustaceans, small algae on the bottom of the cliff, every “dollar” is always hiding in the sand.

They have a large body diameter of 8-10 cm, can also be smaller depending on the type. Behind their fringed flesh and fur is a very solid skeleton, round and flat like a turtle’s shell. On its shell, there is also a 5-pointed flower/star pattern.

The most commonly seen individuals are blue, turquoise, but sometimes there are also pink, brown, yellow, purple, green, white, gray … and they are all smooth and velvety. They move and eat very slowly, it usually takes 2 days to digest all the food in the stomach. However, they live as long as 10 years.

Under the sun and the food of many seagulls, they gradually reduced to strange skeletons and attracted countless tourists. Until now, localities with sea areas still use this sand dollar to attract tourism. Folks often make them to make earrings, bracelets, necklaces and color and paint the animal’s carapace to create magical and brilliant flowers.

When swimming, especially in the Atlantic, Pacific and Caribbean, if you want to find “dollars” in the sand, follow the shores at low tide and look for shiny things. , has an ivory-white color that can sparkle in the sun.

If you’re lucky, you’ll find round, pretty ones pinned in the sand like seashells, but much more valuable. It is like white coral that sells for a lot of money, as the name suggests: “Dollar” in the sand.