Podcast Folklore

See a Penny Pick it Up

• Kayleigh & Kriss • Season 1 • Episode 26

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Podcast Folklore | Episode 26 | See a Penny, Pick it Up

In this episode of Podcast Folklore, we explore the curious world of coins, pennies, and the superstitions surrounding money throughout history. From the belief that finding a penny brings good luck, to ancient customs where coins were used as protection against evil, the stories about money are far more than just about wealth—they’re about power, fate, and fortune.

Join us as we dig into the folklore of coins across different cultures, uncovering why something as small as a penny has held such weight in human imagination. Are these tiny tokens really lucky? Or is there something deeper lurking beneath the surface of these everyday objects? Get ready to discover the surprising tales of currency, charm, and superstition that have shaped our relationship with money for centuries.

Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more episodes where we unravel the mysteries of folklore!

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Speaker 1:

They say a penny saved is a penny earned. But what is a penny worth in stories? The kind of tales that stretch back to ancient times, wrapped in copper, stamped with kings and presidents, passed through countless hands, from pocket to pocket and sometimes into strangest places? Today we're taking a journey through time and space, through the history and the myths of the humble penny. Pennies may seem insignificant, a mere fraction of a dollar or a pound, but they've played their part in history more than you might think. You've probably heard the old saying find a penny, pick it up, and all day long you'll have good luck. But what about the pennies is it that brings bad luck? Well, those that have witnessed secrets never meant to be revealed. Let's start with the year 1909. It was a momentous year for the penny in America.

Speaker 1:

Us Mint decided to replace the image of Lady Liberty, who had graced the penny for over 60 years, with someone new, abraham Lincoln. It was controversial. A lot of people were uneasy about putting a real person on the coin. It felt too close to royalty those kind of coins minted by emperors. But it stuck. Lincoln, the man who saved the union, became the face of the penny. But here's the twist Some of those first Lincoln pennies bore a tiny marking that would cause chaos in the coin collecting world A small VDB, hidden under Lincoln's shoulders, the initials of Victor David Brenner, the coin's designer. It seemed innocent enough, but people saw it as vanity, an artist marking his territory, and so only a small number of these VDB pennies were minted before the initials were removed. Today, they're one of the most sought-after coins in history. One man's initials turned a penny worth one cent into something worth thousands. And that's the funny thing about pennies sometimes their true value is hidden right beneath the surface.

Speaker 1:

Now let's talk about one of the more unsettling stories tied to pennies. In 1937, a man named John Henderson was said to have a peculiar fear of pennies. It wasn't that he thought they were bad luck. No, john believed pennies were cursed. You see, during the Great depression, john, like many others, found himself broke in desperation. He robbed an old shop in his hometown in upstate new york, taking whatever cash was in the register. The problem, it was mostly pennies. That night he noticed something strange. Every time he tried to spend one of those pennies, something went wrong. A fight broke out in the bar. After he tipped the bartender with one, he lost money on a horse race when he used another to place a bet and soon after strange accidents seemed to follow him wherever he went. John became convinced that the pennies from the robbery were cursed, part of some cosmic punishment for his crime. They say he returned every last one to the shop and for the rest of his life he refused to touch a single penny. Of course there's no proof that pennies are cursed, but maybe, just maybe, it's not the pennies, maybe it's us.

Speaker 1:

Pennies have been with us for centuries. In medieval England they weren't just money, they were a symbol of power, a king's face stamped on the coin, a reminder that every transaction, every trade was in his name. They were so valuable that people would actually cut them into pieces, literally into halves and quarters, because even a fraction of a penny was worth something. In a world without smaller coins Today we don't give pennies a second thought. Some people toss them into fountains, hoping for a wish to come true. Others throw them away, thinking they're worthless.

Speaker 1:

But the truth is, pennies have stories. They've been carried in the pockets of soldiers and thieves. They've been dropped into the hands of beggars and kings. Pennies have stories. They've been carried in the pockets of soldiers and thieves. They've been dropped into the hands of beggars and kings. Pennies have traveled through time from ancient empires to modern day, often overlooked but always present, and maybe the next penny you pick up has its own story waiting to be told. Now, not all penny stories are quite so dark. In fact, some are downright absurd. Did you know that in 2015, a man named Anders Schmidt decided to pay off his car loan in pennies? Yeah, all 300,000 of them. It took the bank hours to count it all, and though his point was clear, pennies were still legal tender even though they were inconvenient, he wasn't wrong, but one might wonder if he had the patience to collect all those pennies. What else could he have done with his time? Maybe he found some rare ones in the mix, like those VDB pennies that we talked about earlier. Maybe he was just proving a point that was worth far more than a cent.

Speaker 1:

Coins are currency and they tell us of their journeys. One particular coin, an ancient Roman coin, a denarius. These silver coins were used throughout the Roman Empire and, while many of them were varied with their owners, some were stolen. In 1957, archaeologists uncovered a tomb of a Roman soldier in the city of Bath in England. Amongst his remains was a small pile of denarii minted during the reign of the Emperor Nero. According to the legend, anyone who dared to disturb the soldier's grave would be cursed. And sure enough, strange things began happening to the workers involved in the excavation. One of the archaeologists who pocketed one of the coins died suddenly in a car crash. Another fell mysteriously ill and was bedridden for weeks. Others reported strange nightmares with visions of Roman soldiers marching in the dead of night, demanding their coins back. The coins were returned to the tomb and the disturbances seemingly stopped, but to this day, superstitions about Roman coins persist. In fact, many collectors believe that holding on to such coins without understanding their history brings bad luck. Perhaps the spirits of their owners still cling to these tiny little pieces of history, waiting to reclaim what was once theirs.

Speaker 1:

On a lighter side of things, pennies can inspire more than just fortune or fear. They can inspire art. Take, for example, the case of Otha Anders. In 2015, anders cashed in a collection of pennies he'd been saving for over 45 years. A single penny here, a handful there, collected meticulously until he had amassed over half a million pennies. When he finally took them to the bank, the haul weighed over £2,800 and amounted to more than $5,000. But what's interesting isn't just the amount. Anders had carefully stacked and arranged the pennies in his home, creating what he called a penny pyramid. It became a monument to his patience and perseverance, and more than that, it was just a statement about value. Anders believed that every penny mattered, every small effort counted, and together they built something far larger than the sum of its parts. It's a reminder that, while we may pass pennies without a second thought, there are those who see them as treasures in their own right. There are those who see them as treasures in their own right.

Speaker 1:

Let's travel back even further in time, to the days of ancient Judah, where a simple coin became a symbol of faith and sacrifice. In the Gospel of Mark, there is a story of the widow's mite. It was said that Jesus watched as a wealthy citizen of Jerusalem made grand offerings at the temple, one after the other, throwing large sums into the treasury. But then came a poor widow who dropped us in just two small copper coins, mites worth only a fraction of a penny. Jesus turned to his disciples and declared that the widow had given more than all the others. Her two tiny coins, given out of poverty, were worth more than the riches of those who gave them from their surplus. Over time, the widow's mite has become a symbol of generosity and of giving from the heart rather than the wallet. But what happened to the widow's mite themselves? Many were thought to have been lost to time, but some ancient mites still survive today. Collectors and religious institutions prized them, and they serve as a reminder that sometimes the smallest coins can carry the greatest meaning.

Speaker 1:

Now let's fast forward to World War II. The year was 1943 and the United States was in the middle of conflict. Copper was in high demand for the war, so the US Mint made a decision Pennies would no longer be made from copper but from steel. It seemed like a simple change, but then something strange happened. A small number of copper pennies were accidentally minted that year. An oversight, a rare mistake, and those 1943 copper pennies became one of the most sought-after coins in American history. To this day, no one knows exactly how many were made. Only about 20 have been confirmed to exist, and they've sold for over a million dollars at auction. It's almost poetic, isn't it? In the midst of war, with a nation focused on victory and sacrifice, a handful of copper pennies slipped through the cracks, and now those tiny copper discs are worth more than anyone could have imagined at the time.

Speaker 1:

Coins have long been associated with the dead. In ancient Greece, it was customary to place a coin known as an obol in the mouth or on the eyes of a deceased. This coin was a payment for the ferryman who would carry the soul across the river Styx into the afterlife. Without the coin, it was believed that the soul would be left. Left to wander the shores of the river for eternity, never finding rest. This tradition didn't stay confined to ancient Greece. Throughout medieval Europe, pennies and small coins were placed in the eyes of the dead to ensure safe passage to the afterlife. And while the practice has mainly faded in the modern world, echoes of it still remain. We still see coins left on graves, a sign of respect, a small offering to the departed. In fact, in many cultures pennies have long been seen as a connection between the living and the dead. They appear in ghost stories and folklore as signs of the afterlife. Have you ever found a penny on the ground and thought where did this come from? Some believe that when you find a penny, it's a message from the departed or a loved one, a reminder that they're still watching over you. You'll think twice next time when you pick up a penny and you'll think about its origins.

Speaker 1:

Pennies are also tied to all kinds of superstitions. You've probably heard that a penny on the ground heads up is good luck, but did you know that in many cultures people place pennies over doorways to protect their homes? It's an old superstition dating back to the belief that copper and other metals could ward off evil spirits. The idea is simple if you kept a penny over the door, evil couldn't cross the threshold. This tradition still lingers in parts of rural America and Europe. Some people put pennies in the foundations of new houses for good luck and under the first stone of a new building. And whilst the superstitions may seem silly, they're rooted in ancient practices, reminders that pennies, like so many small things, can carry an enormous symbolic weight.

Speaker 1:

In the 1980s, a group of psychologists decided to test just how much we value luck when it comes to pennies. They created an experiment where they planted pennies on the sidewalks of New York City. Some pennies were placed heads up, others heads down. They watched as people passed by, counting how many people picked up the pennies. The results people were far more likely to pick up the heads up pennies, believing them to bring good luck. While the tails up pennies were often left alone, even when they were just lying on the sidewalk, these pennies seem to take on a magical quality, embracing that folklore and superstition.

Speaker 1:

It's funny how a simple object can become imbued with such meaning just because of the way it lands. But money, it's a funny thing. It drives us, compels us and sometimes even destroys us. Wars have been fought over it, fortunes have been built on it and entire lives have been consumed by its pursuit. But what happens when money becomes more than just currency, when it turns into a symbol of power? Mystery or even danger of power, mystery or even danger? From cursed treasures to elusive fortunes, stories of money show us that when it comes to money and currency, there's often more at stake than meets the eye.

Speaker 1:

A tale that has haunted treasure hunters for over 150 years is the legend of the lost Confederate gold. In 1865, as the Civil War was coming to a bitter end, rumors began to circulate that the Confederate government had hidden a vast treasure millions of dollars in gold. To prevent it falling into the Union hands, the money, they say, was loaded into wagons and scattered across the South, hidden in caves, buried in forests or dropped into the bottom of deep rivers. Many have claimed to know where the treasure lies, but none have found it. Some say it's cursed. Those who seek are doomed to failure or worse. In fact, in 1921, a treasure hunter named John McCarty set out to find the gold in Georgia. He was convinced he had pinpointed its location. Days later, his body was found in the woods, his throat slit and the gold nowhere to be found. Some said it was the band of vengeful spirits guarding the treasure. Others believed it was rival gold treasure hunters willing to kill to keep the gold hidden. To this day, the Confederate gold remains one of the most elusive treasures in history, and those who search for it often find only disappointment or something far worse.

Speaker 1:

When we think about money, we often think about wealth, power and the desire for more. But what happens when the desire goes too far? The ancient Greeks knew this all too well, and so they gave us the tale of King Midas. According to legend, midas was a king of great wealth, but he was never satisfied. One day, after showing kindness to the god Dionysus, he was granted a single wish. Without hesitation, midas asked for everything that he touched to turn to gold. At first it seemed like the perfect gift flowers, fruits, furniture everything Midas laid his hands on shimmered with golden brilliance. But soon the gift turned into a curse. His food turned to gold before he could eat it, his wine became undrinkable and, worst of all, when his beloved daughter ran to him, she too became a lifeless golden statue. Desperate Midas begged the god to undo the wish to rid him of the very thing he wanted more than anything. The god took pity on him, telling Midas to wash in the river of Pactolus. The curse was lifted, but the river sands turned to gold. The lesson In pursuit of wealth sometimes we risk losing everything we hold dear. Today we still speak of the Midas touch, but we often forget the darker side of the story, the part where too much of a good thing can lead to tragedy.

Speaker 1:

Not all money stories are about myths and curses. Some are about the very real, very daring things people do to get their hands on it. Take, for example, the Great Brinks robbery of 1950. It was one of the largest and most famous heists in American history and it played out something like straight out of a crime novel. The gang responsible spent months planning the heist. They studied the routines of the Brinks employees, mapped out the vault, gathered the tools to bypass the security systems and on the night of January, the 17th 1950, they executed their plan perfectly, breaking into Brinks Armoured Car Depot in Boston and walking away with $2.7 million, the equivalent of over $30 million today.

Speaker 1:

What made the robbery so infamous wasn't just the size of the hall, but the sheer audacity of it. The thieves left almost no trace and for years the police had no ends. The heist was so clean that it became known as the perfect crime. But as with most things, perfection is hard to maintain. In the end, the group's paranoia got the better of them and, one by one, they were caught just days before the statute of limitations would have run out. Almost none of the money was never recovered. The irony Most of the thieves lived in constant fear and distrust after the robbery, afraid that one of their partners would betray them. The heist was supposed to set them free and it ended up being a prison of their own making.

Speaker 1:

Money can be a strange thing. It can bias things, pay our debts, secure our futures. But what happens when money becomes so common, so worthless, that it can't even buy you anything at all. In Zimbabwe in the early 2000s, inflation spread out of control. The government printed more and more money, but as they did, the value of the currency plummeted. Prices doubled, then tripled, and soon they were rising so fast that people had to carry wheelbarrows full of cash just to buy a loaf of bread.

Speaker 1:

At the height of this crisis, the Zimbabwean government issued a $100 trillion note. Yes, a trillion, with 12 zeros. It was the largest denomination of currency ever printed, but by then it was worthless than a piece of paper that it was printed on. People would laugh at the absurdity of it all. Imagine being a trillionaire and still not being able to afford a meal. Today, those trillion dollar notes are worthless worthless as currency and highly sought after by collectors. They serve as a sobering reminder of what happens when a country's economy collapses, when money loses all meaning. And yet there's something oddly fascinating about holding a bill with so many zeros, proof that, even in chaos, money still holds a strange power over us.

Speaker 1:

Of all the stories about money, none are quite as perplexing as the mystery of DB Cooper. On November, the 24th 1971, a man using the name Dan Cooper hijacked a Boeing 727 flying from Portland to Seattle. He calmly informed the flight attendant that he had a bomb and demanded $200,000 in cash and four parachutes. When the plane landed in Seattle, cooper's demands were met, he released the passengers and directed the remaining crew to take off again, heading south Somewhere over the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest, Cooper opened the rear door and parachuted into the night, clutching the ransom money. He was never seen again.

Speaker 1:

The FBI launched an intensive manhunt but despite decades of searching, no trace of Cooper or the money was ever found. Except for one clue in 1980, a young boy discovered three packets of the ransom money buried along the banks of the Columbia River, still bundled in the original rubber bands. But the mystery remains. Did DB Cooper survived the jump? Did he hide the rest of the money somewhere deep in the original rubber bands? But the mystery remains. Did DB Cooper survive the jump? Did he hide the rest of the money somewhere deep in the forest or did he perish, leaving the cash as an unsolved enigma? Cooper became a folklore hero, a symbol of the ultimate outlaw, and even though the case remains cold, the legend of DB Cooper and his missing fortune continues to captivate us to this day.

Speaker 1:

Money has always been a target for thieves, but few thieves were as audacious as the Nazi regime during World War II. In a covert operation known as Operation Bernhard, nazi Germany attempted one of the most ambitious forgery schemes in history. Their goal To destabilize the British economy by flooding it with counterfeit Bank of England notes. The operation was led by SS Major Bernhard Kruger, who assembled a team of skilled forgers, many of them Jewish prisoners in the concentration camps. These men were forced to produce incredibly high quality forgeries, so convincing that even the British banking system couldn't tell them apart from the real thing. At its height, operation Bernhardt produced millions of pounds in counterfeit money and the plan was to drop fake notes over Britain by plane, causing inflation and financial chaos. But by the time the operation was ready, the war was nearing its end and the forgeries were never fully developed and deployed. Instead, most of the counterfeit money was dumped in lakes or hidden. After the war, some of the counterfeit notes resurfaced, causing confusion and panic in the banking world. Even today, some of these notes remain in circulation, undetectable to the untrained eye.

Speaker 1:

It's strange, though even now, some of the money in your pocket might not be as legitimate as you think. Money it's always been more than just a means of exchange. It holds a strange kind of power, doesn't it? From superstition to history, from folklore to fortune, money has its own stories to tell, and even the smallest coins pennies are surrounded by mystery, luck and strange twists of fate. But there's also an old saying spend a penny. Today it's a quaint way of saying someone needs to visit the restroom, but it has quite literal origins In the 19th century Britain. Public restrooms, often found at railway stations, charged one penny for the use of a toilet. The phrase became shorthand for needing the use of facilities, as one would indeed have to spend a penny. But isn't it curious that even something as mundane as a nature's call can be tied to money? There's always a cost, it seems, even for the most basic human needs. Over time, the phrase has stuck, and while the penny is no longer required to answer nature's call, the expression endures a little linguistic relic of a time when a single coin could open the doors to convenience and comfort.

Speaker 1:

But pennies aren't just about spending, are they? They're tied to all sorts of beliefs about fortune, both good and bad. There's something deeply human about attributing luck to the things that we touch every day, as if the universe is trying to communicate through the smallest of signs, as if the universe is trying to communicate through the smallest of signs. Beyond the rhyme about picking up pennies, other ancient beliefs suggest that copper, once the primary metal in pennies, has protective powers. It wasn't just seen as valuable for trade or craftsmanship, but as a material that could fend off evil. In some cultures, copper coins were placed over the doorways and were used in rituals to bring health and prosperity. But there's even older stories that go back to Roman times, where a coin in the mouth of the dead is said to ensure the safe passage. So whether you're picking up a penny from the sidewalk or spending a penny in the old fashion sense, remember that these little pieces of metal have carried with them not only the value, but the superstition, mystery and sometimes a touch of magic. So next time you find a penny, remember heads up and you may just have a lucky day ahead. But if it's tales, well, maybe it's just best left where it is.

Speaker 1:

You've been listening to Podcast Folklore and my name's Kayleigh. I hope you've enjoyed our episode today on money, pennies and coins. Join me next time as we uncover more stories hidden in folklore surrounding us. Until then, keep an eye on your wallet and you never know what tales your money might carry. And remember to always explore the world with wonder.