#32: The Lucky Penny

I don’t actually know where I found this penny, but one day I did and me being me, being slightly too superstitious to throwaway a chance of good luck, must have slipped it into the bottom of my bag.

It’s just a penny from the year 2000, nearly seventeen years old and possibly going through an awkward teenage stage. According to The Royal Mint, it is one of 1,060,420,000 1p coins that entered circulation that year. It is certainly not unique, and yet it has sat for weeks unspent on my windowsill.

It is the process of finding a penny that transforms it from an unwanted bit of change to a token of luck, but paradoxically it is its lack of value that makes pennies losable and thus findable in the first place. Their very insignificance is what makes them significant.

Finding a penny, or a coin, is not always just a piece of luck, but an insight into history. In September, Ancient Roman coins were found buried under a Japanese castle, baffling archaeologists as to their origin. Coins, marked by their origins with stern profiles and symbols, reveal the connections between civilisations and people.

I wonder how many other people have held this penny.

In 2014, a study claimed that there were more germs on a £1 coin than a toilet seat. While that is genuinely quite disgusting, it does make me wonder how many hands this coin has touched, how many insides of wallets it has seen, how many pockets it has rattled inside, what it might have bought.

In fact, they say the luck of a coin is precisely in this sharing, in passing it on, so if it has fumbled through so many fingers, perhaps this coin has gathered more and more luck on the way.

It reminds me of the song about love we used to sing in primary school, about how

‘It’s just like a magic penny,
Hold it tight and you won’t have any.
Lend it, spend it, and you’ll have so many
They’ll roll all over the floor.’

It all sounds like bad money-management to me, but I guess that’s not the point.

I think perhaps I will obey the song: run my fingers along its surface one more time, make a wish, then give it away.

And wait for the good luck to arrive.