See a penny, pick it up....

If the money not be in possession of anyone, sure. :-)

Money is money, right Thok?

I admit to being a bit of a change-aholic. I never spend change but instead throw it into one of several jars around my house. When they get full I go cash it in. Last time I cashed in I had about $700 - not too shabby.

i still do.

old habit from when i was a kid and had quite the penny collection.
i must've had about 20 rolls of these

"wheatback" pennies...

Hi Region. We always called those "wheat" (with no back) pennies. I can't really tell from the photo but (if I recall) isn't that wheat that decorates the rim and gave them their name>

My superstitious husband insists on picking up pennies only if they are heads up. Being from a superstitious tribe myself, I've adopted the habit as well. Couldn't hurt, right?

yes.
i've heard them called "wheatbacks" or "wheaties".
during WWII, to conserve copper, pennies were made of steel & silver in color

I've never heard the "heads up" thing before - interesting.

I'm kind of the same way by superstition, eoe. Some of them - like walking under a ladder - just make sense. The one I could never ever figure out was: Step on a crack, break your mother's back.

What was that all about?

Thanks Region.

You know, that is really a pretty coin for its simplicity. Coins now (quarters especially) are downright ugly.

It takes what- about 3 seconds? - to pick up a penny.

At that rate, picking up pennies earns you $12.00 an hour in your spare time- and gives you needed exercise besides.

Yet another good way to look at it, Equus!

On East Main Street in Columbus, just east of downtown, a gentleman in an office with a window right on the busy street had provided himself a source of constant, harmless entertainment. He had "super-glued" a quarter to the sidewalk. You can imagine the rest for yourself . . .

remember: bend your knees...

Kinda like this... $2 Coin Glued to Sidewalk - Webcam

That's a good one, Jer . . . we have no equivalent for the toonie here . . .

Oh that's funny!

I remember going to some sort of comedy show once where they went "Secretary fishing" at a fountain in downtown. They tried the $1 money lure, then the $5 money lure and kept increasing the amount until they reeled in the girl they wanted.

I believe the original rhyme was:

"See a pin and pick it up,
All the day you'll have good luck.
See a pin and let it lay,
Bad luck you'll have all the day."

Back in the 19th century, pins were valuable. Remember Tom Sawyer collecting pins for a glimpse of his festering toe? Safety pins weren't common and straight pins used for temporary repairs frequently betrayed the wearer.

Cool! Thanks, Noddy.

You've also reminded me that I want to read that book about the history of salt.

I wonder if its out in paperback yet. Has anyone read it?

Maybe it's a generational thing. I always pick up pennies. Our daughter (19 in a couple of weeks) doesn't want to be seen in public with me when I do it.

One of the websites I frequent is The Daily Reckoning. They had an aricle about this very same subject back in July:

"Tom Dyson, from the Monumental City, reminiscing on the 4th of July...

- Your editor noticed a coin on the floor of the bar. It was at the foot of a beautiful woman. We were celebrating our independence and enjoying the firework display in the inner harbor area of Baltimore. A dirty, beer-soaked floor wasn't going to stop your editor from picking up the coin; it was a quarter.

- We always pick up coins from the street. It's not that we have either expensive tastes or insufficient funds, we don't. And nor are we tight-fisted...it's more a force of habit and superstition.

- The attractive woman noticed your editor scratching around on the floor for the coin. "Why did you do that?" she asked, in no uncertain terms, as your editor stood up beside her. She couldn't understand why one would pick up a coin. We couldn't understand why one wouldn't.

- "I'm saving up," your Baltimore-based British editor lied. "I have both expensive tastes and insufficient funds."

- Here in the U.S.A., we find ourselves stooping down to the pavement frequently. In fact, so many pennies litter the streets that sometimes we don't even have time to pick them all up. Rarely can we make it from one corner to the next without pausing to pick up a piece of the government's copper. It never used to be like that.

- The reason is straightforward; give the world's most wasteful people the world's most rapidly inflating currency and you'll get streets paved with copper...they used to be paved with gold."

Jim here again. I "cut and pasted" this to my wife when I first saw it, and said I thought it was appropriate regarding our daughter. On the "subject" line of the e-mail I wrote "sad/funny text". The more I think about the last paragraph, it gets less funny and more sad all the time.

My mom picks up pennies but I won't pick it up unless it's silver
Nickles, dimes, quarters...I will take the energy to pick them up but usually I am too lazy for 1 cent. My time is worth at least a nickle.