The Smallest Denomination

My mother, now 94 on the cusp of 95, has always had the habit of stooping to pick lost pennies up from off some bit of asphalt or concrete or tile. I have found this irksome for many years now. My mother is not a poor woman. She has more than enough, and she is generous with her enough, but she does not “need” a cache of pennies. Now in her old age, she gives a command to my sister or me to do that task for her, but she gets the penny. Always. I don’t know where she keeps them hidden. Someday perhaps my sister and I will stumble upon some secret room where all the pennies my mother has ever collected will be found… copper piled high to the ceiling.

I grew up hearing the rhyming adage “See a penny, pick it up, all the day you’ll have good luck.” I didn’t learn that from my mother, I don’t think I ever heard her say it. I have a thing about NOT being superstitious, as it has always seemed to me that superstition was counter to faith. So, I deliberately didn’t pick pennies up for myself, preferring to leave them for the next person who might have such a belief or need for that matter. I don’t think mom was superstitious either, she just had this weird obsession.

The penny is such a small thing. Today it seems almost worthless.... much like the widow's mite from the parable about generous giving. The mite was also known as a "lepton". In the day of Christ, it was worth approximately 1/8th of a cent. That is small indeed. Yet in giving it away, the poor widow earned a place in the sacred texts of Christ's teachings.

Still, the penny is so small that even one million of them would not equal a year's living wage in this country.

One hundred pennies might buy a used coffee mug from a thrift shop

One thousand pennies might buy a movie ticket during a mattinee (but skip the popcorn!)

Ten thousand pennies might buy a nice pair of sneakers

One hundred thousand pennies might buy a pleasant short vacation

Even if I had picked up every stray penny I had discovered in my life, saved them for a rainy day, I would not have enough to improve my life significantly. It thus seemed to me a sort of senseless thing to do.

Then I had a paradigm shift about finding unexpected pennies. I had made an assumption about this funny little routine, that it was about “luck” or money. One day recently I read a most delightful story about a woman who grew up with a different adage about pennies;

Today I found a penny, Just laying on the ground.

But it's not just a penny, This little coin I've found.

Found pennies come from heaven. That's what Grandpa told me.

He said Angels toss them down. Oh, how I loved that story.

When an Angel misses you, They toss a penny down,

Sometimes just to cheer you up, To make a smile from a frown.

So don't pass by that penny When you're feeling blue;

It may be a Penny from Heaven that an Angel's tossed to you.

 .

And suddenly, I started seeing pennies. In unusual places, when I needed cheering most.

Isn't that uncanny?

A sign of encouragement. A harbinger of better things to come. Now days, should I spot an errant penny it seems to bring an automatic smile, sometimes outward, sometimes inward.

What a lovely small surprise.