Pick 29 - Pennies From Heaven

Today as I stooped down to pick up the Morning Newspaper in our driveway I noticed a shiny new penny about a foot from the paper. Its newly minted glow so contrasted the black driveway that I could hardly miss it. I went to pick it up but hesitated when I recalled what a dear friend had told my wife and me about such pennies.

We were discussing the "pennies from heaven" stories that appear in the Dear Abby column from time to time.  Most of the spotters of these pennies claim that finding such a coin had profound significance for them because the penny had some feature that connected it to a deceased loved one. Sometimes the mint year matched the birth date of the loved one. In other cases, the penny may have been a collectable that matched one in the coin collection of the deceased but the circumstances under which it was found may have been extraordinary--like it was in the bottom of a vase bought at a yard sale hundreds of miles from where the deceased loved one last lived. Whatever the significance, the penny was thought to be a sign from the deceased loved one--usually a positive sign. So the name "pennies from heaven" was coined into the English language.

In our discussion this dear friend noted that in her family, which was rooted in Eastern European traditions, when one spots a single coin on the ground it should not be picked up before determining if it is lying heads up or heads down. If it was lying heads down you'd best let it be because it is the purveyor of bad luck. The shiny penny I found was thankfully heads up. But the hidden value was not in the coin. It was in the fact that within the hour, my wife and I would be heading to the funeral of that dear friend. She had passed away a just few days earlier.

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