Was picking up a penny a no-no for you?

[+ friendofsheila]

Used to be I wouldn't pick up a penny I saw on the street. In a sermon I heard once, the pastor said that she wouldn't do it because then people would "think she was poor," which I think was my reason too.

 

Now I do it, but I wonder if others avoid it.

 

Do you?

[+ Travis69]

I heard as a kid it was supposed to bring good luck so I do pick them up.

[Epigonos]

As a kid I also heard that it was good luck to pick up a penny but I was told you were then supposed to put it in your shoe. I'm now 73, and believe it or not, I still do it -- talk about force of habit!!!!!

[instudiocity]

If it was $100 bill you'd pick it up. What's the difference? How big a who*e you are?

[+ FreshFluff]

I usually won't pick up a penny. Paper money picks up a lot of bacteria, but coins do as well. A penny isn't worth even a small small possibility of getting a cold or flu.

 

And yes, we can pick up the same bacteria from cash transactions. But fortunately, many of us use credit or debit cards for most of our daily transactions.

 

However I'm tempted to pick up a quarter or more, since the thrill from an unexpected gain is never proportional to what one can actually buy with it.

[+ sf westcoaster]

I pick up any denomination and then drop it in the cup of the the next beggar I encounter.

[+ deej]

Find a penny, pick it up, and all your life you'll have good luck.

 

Never walk away from found money.

 

(But remember that Bill Gates really DOESN'T want to give you a million dollars and you really DIDN'T win big in the Irish lottery you never entered.)

[+ purplekow]

See a penny pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck. See a penny let it stay, you'll have bad luck all the day. Think pin can be substituted for penny.

In my neck of the woods, you pick up a penny if it is on heads and fortune is looking at you. If it is on tails, you leave it as fortune is looking away.

At this point in time, if I bent over to pick up a penny, it may cost my $10,000 in medical bills and physical therapy.

[+ deej]

At this point in time, if I bent over to pick up a penny, it may cost my $10,000 in medical bills and physical therapy.

 

We could get you one of those pooper-scooper thing-o's dog owners use, with a mini rake and dustbin. You could spend your dotage years working on accuracy.

 

Just a thought...

[marylander1940]

I don't pick up pennies, but I do pick up nickles, dimes, quarters and dollar coins.

 

...

At this point in time, if I bent over to pick up a penny, it may cost my $10,000 in medical bills and physical therapy.

 

I have issues with my sciatica, but I'm very careful with all the moves of my body that involve bending over...

[Steven_Draker]

From Yahoo Answers:

 

"Many lucky pennyists adhere to the notion that only a heads-up penny brings good luck. Some, pressing this doctrine even further, maintain that a face-down penny is not of a neutral character but unlucky and to be avoided." Others say that if you find a penny face down: return it face up and leave it there -- it will bring luck to the next person who walks by.

[Okliehomo]

Yeah, Steven, that's the rule that I follow.

 

A face down penny is bad luck. Heads up, good luck. Always a little conflicted though. Leaving found money can be seen by some (God, who, of course, monitors my every move and loves all this knees to ears business) as arrogance.... like, "I have all the money I need and am too cool to pick up a penny" That, of course, can lead to some sort of financial comeuppance.... because, everything is a sign.

 

Sometimes these voices make me very tired.

[ChiTown]

Variation on the theme: "Find a penny, pick it up. All the day you'll have good luck". I'm not too proud to do so.

[Mark Gordon]

Pennies are very rarely seen in Canada since production ceased in 2012 and they were withdrawn from circulation in early 2013. Although they remain legal tender, retailers won't take them anymore, so if you picked one up, you'd have to take it to a bank to get any value from it. The Royal Canadian Mint has been collecting and melting down the estimated 38 billion pennies that were in circulation. Before it was withdrawn, the penny cost 1.6 cents to produce and the average Canadian had over 600 of them hoarded.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(Canadian_coin)

[gallahadesquire]

Pennies are very rarely seen in Canada since production ceased in 2012 and they were withdrawn from circulation in early 2013. Although they remain legal tender, retailers won't take them anymore, so if you picked one up, you'd have to take it to a bank to get any value from it. The Royal Canadian Mint has been collecting and melting down the estimated 38 billion pennies that were in circulation. Before it was withdrawn, the penny cost 1.6 cents to produce and the average Canadian had over 600 of them hoarded.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(Canadian_coin)

 

If only the U.S. of A. would be so intelligent.

[+ jeezopete]

Another view of those found pennies....

 

DEAR ABBY: The "pennies from heaven" letters in your column have been a blessing to me. "Patrick" and I were together eight years when he died unexpectedly after turning 31 last February. We considered ourselves married, and never thought we'd need a marriage license to formalize our love.

When Patrick died, his family took his body. They emptied our apartment the next day and refuse to tell me where he is buried.

Three times in the last month I have found pennies dated 1977 -- the year Patrick was born. One particularly shiny one appeared on the passenger seat of my car on my first day back at work. I'm sure it is his way of telling me not to worry, that he is close by.

Thank you for printing those stories. They have been a source of great comfort to me. -- MOURNING IN SAN FRANCISCO

DEAR MOURNING: Please accept my deepest sympathy for your loss. I'm gratified the "pennies" letters have brought you some solace, as they have many other readers, and I hope your experience will enlighten any couple who thinks a marriage license is "only a piece of paper."

 

DEAR ABBY: On Sept. 11, I tragically lost my brother, New York firefighter Michael Kiefer of Ladder 132 in Brooklyn. He was only 25 when he died, and his greatest dream was to be a New York firefighter. He lived his dream for only nine months.

The pain of losing my brother in such a violent and senseless act has been unbearable. My parents told me about the "pennies" letters in your column -- how each time someone finds a penny, it means a loved one in heaven is thinking of us. I cannot begin to tell you how true this has been for my family.

Whenever one of us is feeling especially down about Michael, we always find a penny. An example: My brother loved to go to the gym, so one day I decided it was time for me to get back in shape and make him proud. All during my workout I told my angel brother I was doing it for him. As I walked out of the gym, there it was -- a bright, shiny penny! I knew then that Michael was proud of me. It truly was a penny from heaven, and without a doubt from my brother, whom I love and will miss for the rest of my life. Michael, you will always be our hero and you will never be forgotten! -- LAUREN M. KIEFER, FRANKLIN SQUARE, N.Y.

DEAR LAUREN: I extend my deepest sympathy to you and your family for the loss of your heroic brother. The "pennies from heaven" letters have moved many of my readers. And one day I hope to publish a collection of the letters I have received with their messages of hope. Thank you for sharing yours.

[Steven_Draker]

$58 million in loose change "lost" every year

 

2 news items:

 

"Virgin Atlantic Airways discovered that it takes in an average of 18 cents per passenger per flight in loose change found in the plane's seats. If that figure holds for the approximate 320 million people who fly from one country to another worldwide each year, the total is about $58 million. Lost coins on domestic flights don't amount to much, however. Chicago O'Hare cleaning crews said they found only about 6 cents per flight. It is suggested that more travelers to other countries "accidentally" leave foreign coins behind to avoid dealing with them once they get home."

 

source: http://www.fleur-de-coin.com/trivials/united-states-3

 

____________________________

 

A survey conducted by the "Monnaie de Paris" [The Mint] for the French newspaper Le Figaro reveals that during 2013, the French have "lost" 92 million Euros in small change!

 

Le Figaro announces that the French have thus lost 28 million in the sewers, 11 million in handbags, 7.8 million in cars and 5.9 million under sofa cushions.

 

source (in French): http://www.lefigaro.fr/argent/2014/06/06/05010-20140606ARTFIG00018-les-francais-ont-egare-92millions-d-euros-en-2013.php

[tanman4u]

From "Interesting Facts About Bill Gates". This is from several years ago.

 

1. Bill Gates earns $250 every SECOND, that's about $20 million a DAY

and $7.8 billion a YEAR!

 

2. If he drops a thousand dollars, he won't even bother to pick it up

because in the 4 seconds it takes to pick it up, he would have already

earned it back.

[Bargara Leatherboy]

2 news items:

 

"Virgin Atlantic Airways discovered that it takes in an average of 18 cents per passenger per flight in loose change found in the plane's seats. If that figure holds for the approximate 320 million people who fly from one country to another worldwide each year, the total is about $58 million. Lost coins on domestic flights don't amount to much, however. Chicago O'Hare cleaning crews said they found only about 6 cents per flight. It is suggested that more travelers to other countries "accidentally" leave foreign coins behind to avoid dealing with them once they get home."

 

source: http://www.fleur-de-coin.com/trivials/united-states-3

 

____________________________

 

Qantas as an envelope on the meal trays, to place your foreign coin and notes, the proceeds go to charity.

[Justice]

See a penny. Pick it up. And all the day you'll have good luck. Or so says the childhood cliché. I don't know about the luck part, but I almost always pick up pennies (and any other change I might find). I look for change on the ground, etc. The only recent times that I didn't pick up pennies was once when picking one up might have put me in danger of getting hit by turning vehicles at very busy intersection and once when I saw a penny near a panhandler. (I was concerned that stooping to pick it up could have resulted in my getting physically attacked. He was very aggressive.) Picking up pennies adds up. The clerk at my local Dunkin Donuts calls me the "penny man" because I always include pennies with my payment. (Medium hot currently costs $2.02; medium iced current costs $2.67). She once asked me "where do you get all those pennies?" I responded that I was a collector. I didn't want to explain that I find most of them. I go through periodic dry spells, but I've found at least $5.00 (mostly in pennies) so far this year. As I explained to a friend who teased me about picking up two pennies near a NJ Transit ticket machine, when I bought my July monthly, those 2 pennies were more than I started out with, they were tax free and I can use them to help pay for something.

[Phil_musc]

I pick up pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and bills - germs be damned. But then I believe in karma and I figure if I pick up all those things, perhaps someone will pick me up too.

[+ friendofsheila]

2 news items:

 

 

So often you give us interesting tidbits from outside sources, but I see only infrequently your opinion, Steven.

 

Do you pick up pennies (i.e. the smallest coin in Belgium) or do you pass them by?

[Steven_Draker]

Do you pick up pennies (i.e. the smallest coin in Belgium) or do you pass them by?

 

I would stop and pick up a euro cent or other small coin, if I'm not in a busy street with lots of traffic. I also was thought that it brings good luck.

 

Once I found a horseshoe when I was taking a walk in the nearby forest. I still keep it in my house.

 

http://www.candodistributors.com/st%20croix%20plain%20horseshoes.jpg

[+ friendofsheila]

A NEW WRINKLE FOR THOSE WHO SAID THEY WOULD PICK ONE UP BECAUSE OF GOOD LUCK:

 

I saw a young woman next to her car. The door was open. It was a very, very quiet residential street, zero traffic.

 

Said young woman is leaning into her car and tossing her hand over her shoulder. When I come closer I see she is pulling pennies off the floor of her car and tossing them wholesale into the street. It must have been dozens of them.

 

She then finishes and drives off.

 

NOW FOR THOSE WHO SAID THEY WOULD ONLY DO THIS BECAUSE OF GOOD LUCK: would you have stopped to pick these up? There is no traffic on this very quiet residential street.

 

(For the record, I stopped and got them.)

[Lookin]

(For the record, I stopped and got them.)

 

 

Not only would I have scavenged each and every one, I'd have checked what else was down there too. http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1aROsyRgnZM/TFBBXcTdPbI/AAAAAAAADGQ/iZiATAoQJuc/s1600/chewing+gum+comment+7-27-2010+4-20-29+PM.JPG