When I was little, my parents owned a minivan. There was nothing particularly great about this van, it was just an old Pontiac Montana with forest green sides and gold trim, however; inside that van, attached to the drivers side sun visor was something of a rather strange origin.
I was told it was a gift to my father from my grandfather, though I cannot say for sure as I was young and I had never met the man who gifted it. It was a rather large safety pin with two coins and some red string attaching them. The coins themselves were gold and silver, both with a square hole in the center. 
My grandfather had been a coin collector, and his time in the army had allowed him to amass quite the collection, he had jars upon jars in a closet that my grandmother refused to touch upon his passing. I remember when I was little going through the jars, looking for the shiniest coins (this coincidentally is how I ended up with so many Canadian coins in my piggy bank as a child).
It makes sense that my grandfather would have chosen to give my father the two Chinese coins. He was an engineer who made it his job to travel and get to know other cultures, and upon looking around the home that he and my grandmother shared, they had a special appreciation for the Chinese. Their house was filled with artw
ork and old carved furniture and statues from China, and outside there was a direct influence to zen gardens in the layout of their lawn.
Only yesterday did I learn some of the significance behind the coins I spent my childhood looking at. While they most likely did not come from those who worked on the Stanford Railroad, they are made in the same style and most likely carry some sort of cultural significance, especially if they made their way to the United States, and eventually to our minivan. Sadly, the coins themselves were lost when the car was totaled, though I do remember my father saying they did their job, which was always to bring us luck and safe travels.