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Q. When I was younger, I went to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and I remember the first exhibit being the four stools from the Woolworth lunch counter. I assumed that they were the stools the Greensboro Four sat in. The Smithsonian says on its Web site that by photographs, and the best of their knowledge, they have the original four. However on the International Civil Rights Center & Museum Web site it says the stools have never been removed from their original footprint. I am confused, and frankly just curious. Who has the original stools?

— Nick, Greensboro

A. The Smithsonian people are curious as to where you saw that because they say it’s not on their Web site — and I couldn’t locate it there either.

The nation’s historical museum has had an 8-foot section of the lunch counter and four stools from the five-and-dime since 1995. Actually, there are displays at the Smithsonian and at the Greensboro Historical Museum.

The items were handed over shortly after the store closed.

But none of those include the stools the young men occupied when they sat down and asked to be served.

“All of the stools are original stools — but original doesn’t mean they were the ones the four sat in,” said Amelia Parker, the historical museum’s executive director. “We have those.”

— Nancy McLaughlin

Q. My company bought Visa gift cards for employees and paid a gift card fee of $4.95 for one card and $3.95 for each of 12 additional cards. That’s an additional $52.35! What might this fee be for?

— Laura Taylor, Greensboro

A. You know those boxes you can buy at the post office and whatever you put inside you can mail for a certain fee? Same logic is true for Visa gift cards, which are pre-paid credit cards independently issued by financial institutions that may or may not charge fees. Visa itself is not a bank, but a network of those individual financial institutions.

Your company bought the opportunity to choose an amount to be added to the card and retrieved later.

The fee also paid for the convenience of those employees being able to retrieve it almost anywhere.

Store gift cards are usually free, but whatever you put on the card is going to be spent in the store, so the store profits another way.

It has been reported recently that prepaid cards have boosted the profitability for Visa and Mastercard. Count that $52.35 toward their collective bottom lines.

— Nancy McLaughlin