The first car I drove when I came to America was a used Honda Accord.

At that time, it was cooler than any Benz or BMW to me.

True to its Honda nature, it drove smoothly on the freeway, and I remember enjoying the music from the high-quality audio and speakers, which were better than domestic cars at the time.

However, what stands out most in my memory from that car is the 'coin holder' that was nestled in the center console.

It had a coin holder that could fit quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies perfectly, and I quickly realized its usefulness.

When I bought a hamburger at a drive-thru, I would naturally place the change I received there.

At the self-car wash, when I used the high-pressure washer, I would take out exactly four quarters, which would give me precisely two minutes of washing time.

It was even the necessary coins for parking meters on the street, and whether or not you had coins made a difference in how easy parking was back then.

The coin holder, which was within easy reach of my right hand while sitting in the driver's seat, was the epitome of convenience.

At that time, card payments were only for large amounts, and everything from a cup of coffee, a hamburger, a car wash, to even getting a soda from a vending machine was done with coins.

So, I always needed change, and my wallet was filled with a few one-dollar bills and coins.

But before I knew it, that coin holder disappeared. Nowadays, cars come with USB ports in the center console, but no coin storage feature.

With Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, credit cards can just be tapped to complete a payment.

Most car washes now have card readers, and at coffee shops, you can order through a mobile app and just pick it up.

As a result, I often find that I have not even a single one-dollar bill or a coin in my wallet.

Recently, something happened that made me realize this. While waiting at a traffic signal near a highway entrance, a man was standing there holding a sign asking for help.

I was about to help him when I suddenly realized: I had no one-dollar bills or even a quarter in my wallet or car.

In that moment, I felt a strange awkwardness. It wasn't that I didn't have money, but rather that I couldn't do anything because I had no cash.

In the past, I would have handed him four or five quarters from the center console, but now I had to awkwardly look away and pass by.

When I opened my car console, I found a few parking tickets, some old receipts, and a tangled USB charging cable, but that old coin holder was gone.

And suddenly, I felt that just the disappearance of that small holder meant that a warm era had passed along with it.

Of course, things are more convenient now. I can buy coffee, get a car wash, and park using an app without taking anything out of my wallet.

But there's something about the tactile sensation of holding those small, heavy coins that I miss.

These days, kids might hold a quarter or a penny and ask, "What do you use this for?"

Today, I leave the house with a wallet that has no cash and just my smartphone, but sometimes I long for the days when that coin holder was around....