November 24, 2024 • 27 mins
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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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
They say a penny saved is a penny earned.
But what is a penny worth instories?
The kind of tales that stretchback to ancient times, wrapped
in copper, stamped with kingsand presidents, passed through
countless hands, from pocket topocket and sometimes into
strangest places?
Today we're taking a journeythrough time and space, through
(00:29):
the history and the myths of thehumble penny.
Pennies may seem insignificant,a mere fraction of a dollar or
(01:02):
a pound, but they've playedtheir part in history more than
you might think.
You've probably heard the oldsaying find a penny, pick it up,
and all day long you'll havegood luck.
But what about the pennies isit that brings bad luck?
Well, those that have witnessedsecrets never meant to be
revealed.
Let's start with the year 1909.
It was a momentous year for thepenny in America.
(01:24):
Us Mint decided to replace theimage of Lady Liberty, who had
graced the penny for over 60years, with someone new, abraham
Lincoln.
It was controversial.
A lot of people were uneasyabout putting a real person on
the coin.
It felt too close to royaltythose kind of coins minted by
emperors.
But it stuck.
(01:46):
Lincoln, the man who saved theunion, became the face of the
penny.
But here's the twist Some ofthose first Lincoln pennies bore
a tiny marking that would causechaos in the coin collecting
world A small VDB, hidden underLincoln's shoulders, the
initials of Victor David Brenner, the coin's designer.
(02:08):
It seemed innocent enough, butpeople saw it as vanity, an
artist marking his territory,and so only a small number of
these VDB pennies were mintedbefore the initials were removed
.
Today, they're one of the mostsought-after coins in history.
One man's initials turned apenny worth one cent into
(02:30):
something worth thousands.
And that's the funny thingabout pennies sometimes their
true value is hidden rightbeneath the surface.
Now let's talk about one of themore unsettling stories tied to
pennies.
In 1937, a man named JohnHenderson was said to have a
(02:53):
peculiar fear of pennies.
It wasn't that he thought theywere bad luck.
No, john believed pennies werecursed.
You see, during the Greatdepression, john, like many
others, found himself broke indesperation.
He robbed an old shop in hishometown in upstate new york,
taking whatever cash was in theregister.
(03:14):
The problem, it was mostlypennies.
That night he noticed somethingstrange.
Every time he tried to spendone of those pennies, something
went wrong.
A fight broke out in the bar.
After he tipped the bartenderwith one, he lost money on a
horse race when he used anotherto place a bet and soon after
strange accidents seemed tofollow him wherever he went.
(03:36):
John became convinced that thepennies from the robbery were
cursed, part of some cosmicpunishment for his crime.
They say he returned every lastone to the shop and for the
rest of his life he refused totouch a single penny.
Of course there's no proof thatpennies are cursed, but maybe,
just maybe, it's not the pennies, maybe it's us.
(04:01):
Pennies have been with us forcenturies.
In medieval England theyweren't just money, they were a
symbol of power, a king's facestamped on the coin, a reminder
that every transaction, everytrade was in his name.
They were so valuable thatpeople would actually cut them
into pieces, literally intohalves and quarters, because
(04:23):
even a fraction of a penny wasworth something.
In a world without smallercoins Today we don't give
pennies a second thought.
Some people toss them intofountains, hoping for a wish to
come true.
Others throw them away,thinking they're worthless.
But the truth is, pennies havestories.
They've been carried in thepockets of soldiers and thieves.
(04:44):
They've been dropped into thehands of beggars and kings.
Pennies have stories.
They've been carried in thepockets of soldiers and thieves.
They've been dropped into thehands of beggars and kings.
Pennies have traveled throughtime from ancient empires to
modern day, often overlooked butalways present, and maybe the
next penny you pick up has itsown story waiting to be told.
Now, not all penny stories arequite so dark.
(05:05):
In fact, some are downrightabsurd.
Did you know that in 2015, aman named Anders Schmidt decided
to pay off his car loan inpennies?
Yeah, all 300,000 of them.
It took the bank hours to countit all, and though his point
was clear, pennies were stilllegal tender even though they
(05:28):
were inconvenient, he wasn'twrong, but one might wonder if
he had the patience to collectall those pennies.
What else could he have donewith his time?
Maybe he found some rare onesin the mix, like those VDB
pennies that we talked aboutearlier.
Maybe he was just proving apoint that was worth far more
than a cent.
(05:50):
Coins are currency and they tellus of their journeys.
One particular coin, an ancientRoman coin, a denarius.
These silver coins were usedthroughout the Roman Empire and,
while many of them were variedwith their owners, some were
stolen.
In 1957, archaeologistsuncovered a tomb of a Roman
(06:12):
soldier in the city of Bath inEngland.
Amongst his remains was a smallpile of denarii minted during
the reign of the Emperor Nero.
According to the legend, anyonewho dared to disturb the
soldier's grave would be cursed.
And sure enough, strange thingsbegan happening to the workers
involved in the excavation.
One of the archaeologists whopocketed one of the coins died
(06:36):
suddenly in a car crash.
Another fell mysteriously illand was bedridden for weeks.
Others reported strangenightmares with visions of Roman
soldiers marching in the deadof night, demanding their coins
back.
The coins were returned to thetomb and the disturbances
seemingly stopped, but to thisday, superstitions about Roman
(06:57):
coins persist.
In fact, many collectorsbelieve that holding on to such
coins without understandingtheir history brings bad luck.
Perhaps the spirits of theirowners still cling to these tiny
little pieces of history,waiting to reclaim what was once
theirs.
On a lighter side of things,pennies can inspire more than
just fortune or fear.
(07:18):
They can inspire art.
Take, for example, the case ofOtha Anders.
In 2015, anders cashed in acollection of pennies he'd been
saving for over 45 years.
A single penny here, a handfulthere, collected meticulously
until he had amassed over half amillion pennies.
(07:38):
When he finally took them tothe bank, the haul weighed over
£2,800 and amounted to more than$5,000.
But what's interesting isn'tjust the amount.
Anders had carefully stackedand arranged the pennies in his
home, creating what he called apenny pyramid.
It became a monument to hispatience and perseverance, and
(08:02):
more than that, it was just astatement about value.
Anders believed that everypenny mattered, every small
effort counted, and togetherthey built something far larger
than the sum of its parts.
It's a reminder that, while wemay pass pennies without a
second thought, there are thosewho see them as treasures in
their own right.
(08:22):
There are those who see them astreasures in their own right.
Let's travel back even furtherin time, to the days of ancient
Judah, where a simple coinbecame a symbol of faith and
sacrifice.
In the Gospel of Mark, there isa story of the widow's mite.
(08:43):
It was said that Jesus watchedas a wealthy citizen of
Jerusalem made grand offeringsat the temple, one after the
other, throwing large sums intothe treasury.
But then came a poor widow whodropped us in just two small
copper coins, mites worth only afraction of a penny.
Jesus turned to his disciplesand declared that the widow had
(09:04):
given more than all the others.
Her two tiny coins, given outof poverty, were worth more than
the riches of those who gavethem from their surplus.
Over time, the widow's mite hasbecome a symbol of generosity
and of giving from the heartrather than the wallet.
But what happened to thewidow's mite themselves?
(09:26):
Many were thought to have beenlost to time, but some ancient
mites still survive today.
Collectors and religiousinstitutions prized them, and
they serve as a reminder thatsometimes the smallest coins can
carry the greatest meaning.
Now let's fast forward to WorldWar II.
The year was 1943 and theUnited States was in the middle
(09:50):
of conflict.
Copper was in high demand forthe war, so the US Mint made a
decision Pennies would no longerbe made from copper but from
steel.
It seemed like a simple change,but then something strange
happened.
A small number of copperpennies were accidentally minted
that year.
(10:10):
An oversight, a rare mistake,and those 1943 copper pennies
became one of the mostsought-after coins in American
history.
To this day, no one knowsexactly how many were made.
Only about 20 have beenconfirmed to exist, and they've
sold for over a million dollarsat auction.
It's almost poetic, isn't it?
(10:32):
In the midst of war, with anation focused on victory and
sacrifice, a handful of copperpennies slipped through the
cracks, and now those tinycopper discs are worth more than
anyone could have imagined atthe time.
Coins have long been associatedwith the dead.
In ancient Greece, it wascustomary to place a coin known
(10:55):
as an obol in the mouth or onthe eyes of a deceased.
This coin was a payment for theferryman who would carry the
soul across the river Styx intothe afterlife.
Without the coin, it wasbelieved that the soul would be
left.
Left to wander the shores ofthe river for eternity, never
finding rest.
(11:15):
This tradition didn't stayconfined to ancient Greece.
Throughout medieval Europe,pennies and small coins were
placed in the eyes of the deadto ensure safe passage to the
afterlife.
And while the practice hasmainly faded in the modern world
, echoes of it still remain.
We still see coins left ongraves, a sign of respect, a
(11:39):
small offering to the departed.
In fact, in many culturespennies have long been seen as a
connection between the livingand the dead.
They appear in ghost storiesand folklore as signs of the
afterlife.
Have you ever found a penny onthe ground and thought where did
this come from?
Some believe that when you finda penny, it's a message from
(12:02):
the departed or a loved one, areminder that they're still
watching over you.
You'll think twice next timewhen you pick up a penny and
you'll think about its origins.
Pennies are also tied to allkinds of superstitions.
You've probably heard that apenny on the ground heads up is
(12:22):
good luck, but did you know thatin many cultures people place
pennies over doorways to protecttheir homes?
It's an old superstition datingback to the belief that copper
and other metals could ward offevil spirits.
The idea is simple if you kepta penny over the door, evil
couldn't cross the threshold.
This tradition still lingers inparts of rural America and
(12:46):
Europe.
Some people put pennies in thefoundations of new houses for
good luck and under the firststone of a new building.
And whilst the superstitionsmay seem silly, they're rooted
in ancient practices, remindersthat pennies, like so many small
things, can carry an enormoussymbolic weight.
In the 1980s, a group ofpsychologists decided to test
(13:08):
just how much we value luck whenit comes to pennies.
They created an experimentwhere they planted pennies on
the sidewalks of New York City.
Some pennies were placed headsup, others heads down.
They watched as people passedby, counting how many people
picked up the pennies.
The results people were farmore likely to pick up the heads
(13:32):
up pennies, believing them tobring good luck.
While the tails up pennies wereoften left alone, even when
they were just lying on thesidewalk, these pennies seem to
take on a magical quality,embracing that folklore and
superstition.
It's funny how a simple objectcan become imbued with such
meaning just because of the wayit lands.
(13:54):
But money, it's a funny thing.
It drives us, compels us andsometimes even destroys us.
Wars have been fought over it,fortunes have been built on it
and entire lives have beenconsumed by its pursuit.
But what happens when moneybecomes more than just currency,
(14:18):
when it turns into a symbol ofpower?
Mystery or even danger of power, mystery or even danger?
From cursed treasures toelusive fortunes, stories of
money show us that when it comesto money and currency, there's
often more at stake than meetsthe eye.
(14:39):
A tale that has haunted treasurehunters for over 150 years is
the legend of the lostConfederate gold.
In 1865, as the Civil War wascoming to a bitter end, rumors
began to circulate that theConfederate government had
hidden a vast treasure millionsof dollars in gold.
To prevent it falling into theUnion hands, the money, they say
(15:03):
, was loaded into wagons andscattered across the South,
hidden in caves, buried inforests or dropped into the
bottom of deep rivers.
Many have claimed to know wherethe treasure lies, but none
have found it.
Some say it's cursed.
Those who seek are doomed tofailure or worse.
In fact, in 1921, a treasurehunter named John McCarty set
(15:28):
out to find the gold in Georgia.
He was convinced he hadpinpointed its location.
Days later, his body was foundin the woods, his throat slit
and the gold nowhere to be found.
Some said it was the band ofvengeful spirits guarding the
treasure.
Others believed it was rivalgold treasure hunters willing to
(15:51):
kill to keep the gold hidden.
To this day, the Confederategold remains one of the most
elusive treasures in history,and those who search for it
often find only disappointmentor something far worse.
When we think about money, weoften think about wealth, power
and the desire for more.
But what happens when thedesire goes too far?
(16:19):
The ancient Greeks knew thisall too well, and so they gave
us the tale of King Midas.
According to legend, midas wasa king of great wealth, but he
was never satisfied.
One day, after showing kindnessto the god Dionysus, he was
granted a single wish.
Without hesitation, midas askedfor everything that he touched
to turn to gold.
(16:40):
At first it seemed like theperfect gift flowers, fruits,
furniture everything Midas laidhis hands on shimmered with
golden brilliance.
But soon the gift turned into acurse.
His food turned to gold beforehe could eat it, his wine became
undrinkable and, worst of all,when his beloved daughter ran to
(17:03):
him, she too became a lifelessgolden statue.
Desperate Midas begged the godto undo the wish to rid him of
the very thing he wanted morethan anything.
The god took pity on him,telling Midas to wash in the
river of Pactolus.
(17:23):
The curse was lifted, but theriver sands turned to gold.
The lesson In pursuit of wealthsometimes we risk losing
everything we hold dear.
Today we still speak of theMidas touch, but we often forget
the darker side of the story,the part where too much of a
(17:44):
good thing can lead to tragedy.
Not all money stories are aboutmyths and curses.
Some are about the very real,very daring things people do to
get their hands on it.
Take, for example, the GreatBrinks robbery of 1950.
It was one of the largest andmost famous heists in American
(18:06):
history and it played outsomething like straight out of a
crime novel.
The gang responsible spentmonths planning the heist.
They studied the routines ofthe Brinks employees, mapped out
the vault, gathered the toolsto bypass the security systems
and on the night of January, the17th 1950, they executed their
(18:27):
plan perfectly, breaking intoBrinks Armoured Car Depot in
Boston and walking away with$2.7 million, the equivalent of
over $30 million today.
What made the robbery soinfamous wasn't just the size of
the hall, but the sheeraudacity of it.
The thieves left almost notrace and for years the police
(18:50):
had no ends.
The heist was so clean that itbecame known as the perfect
crime.
But as with most things,perfection is hard to maintain.
In the end, the group'sparanoia got the better of them
and, one by one, they werecaught just days before the
statute of limitations wouldhave run out.
(19:11):
Almost none of the money wasnever recovered.
The irony Most of the thieveslived in constant fear and
distrust after the robbery,afraid that one of their
partners would betray them.
The heist was supposed to setthem free and it ended up being
a prison of their own making.
Money can be a strange thing.
(19:32):
It can bias things, pay ourdebts, secure our futures.
But what happens when moneybecomes so common, so worthless,
that it can't even buy youanything at all.
In Zimbabwe in the early 2000s,inflation spread out of control
.
The government printed more andmore money, but as they did,
the value of the currencyplummeted.
(19:54):
Prices doubled, then tripled,and soon they were rising so
fast that people had to carrywheelbarrows full of cash just
to buy a loaf of bread.
At the height of this crisis,the Zimbabwean government issued
a $100 trillion note.
Yes, a trillion, with 12 zeros.
(20:17):
It was the largest denominationof currency ever printed, but
by then it was worthless than apiece of paper that it was
printed on.
People would laugh at theabsurdity of it all.
Imagine being a trillionaireand still not being able to
afford a meal.
Today, those trillion dollarnotes are worthless worthless as
(20:38):
currency and highly soughtafter by collectors.
They serve as a soberingreminder of what happens when a
country's economy collapses,when money loses all meaning.
And yet there's something oddlyfascinating about holding a
bill with so many zeros, proofthat, even in chaos, money still
(20:58):
holds a strange power over us.
Of all the stories about money,none are quite as perplexing as
the mystery of DB Cooper.
On November, the 24th 1971, aman using the name Dan Cooper
hijacked a Boeing 727 flyingfrom Portland to Seattle.
(21:20):
He calmly informed the flightattendant that he had a bomb and
demanded $200,000 in cash andfour parachutes.
When the plane landed inSeattle, cooper's demands were
met, he released the passengersand directed the remaining crew
to take off again, heading southSomewhere over the dense
(21:40):
forests of the Pacific Northwest, Cooper opened the rear door
and parachuted into the night,clutching the ransom money.
He was never seen again.
The FBI launched an intensivemanhunt but despite decades of
searching, no trace of Cooper orthe money was ever found.
(22:02):
Except for one clue in 1980, ayoung boy discovered three
packets of the ransom moneyburied along the banks of the
Columbia River, still bundled inthe original rubber bands.
But the mystery remains.
Did DB Cooper survived the jump?
Did he hide the rest of themoney somewhere deep in the
original rubber bands?
But the mystery remains.
Did DB Cooper survive the jump?
Did he hide the rest of themoney somewhere deep in the
(22:24):
forest or did he perish, leavingthe cash as an unsolved enigma?
Cooper became a folklore hero,a symbol of the ultimate outlaw,
and even though the caseremains cold, the legend of DB
Cooper and his missing fortunecontinues to captivate us to
(22:45):
this day.
Money has always been a targetfor thieves, but few thieves
were as audacious as the Naziregime during World War II.
In a covert operation known asOperation Bernhard, nazi Germany
attempted one of the mostambitious forgery schemes in
(23:06):
history.
Their goal To destabilize theBritish economy by flooding it
with counterfeit Bank of Englandnotes.
The operation was led by SSMajor Bernhard Kruger, who
assembled a team of skilledforgers, many of them Jewish
prisoners in the concentrationcamps.
These men were forced toproduce incredibly high quality
(23:28):
forgeries, so convincing thateven the British banking system
couldn't tell them apart fromthe real thing.
At its height, operationBernhardt produced millions of
pounds in counterfeit money andthe plan was to drop fake notes
over Britain by plane, causinginflation and financial chaos.
But by the time the operationwas ready, the war was nearing
(23:51):
its end and the forgeries werenever fully developed and
deployed.
Instead, most of thecounterfeit money was dumped in
lakes or hidden.
After the war, some of thecounterfeit notes resurfaced,
causing confusion and panic inthe banking world.
Even today, some of these notesremain in circulation,
(24:12):
undetectable to the untrainedeye.
It's strange, though even now,some of the money in your pocket
might not be as legitimate asyou think.
Money it's always been morethan just a means of exchange.
It holds a strange kind ofpower, doesn't it?
From superstition to history,from folklore to fortune, money
(24:35):
has its own stories to tell, andeven the smallest coins pennies
are surrounded by mystery, luckand strange twists of fate.
But there's also an old sayingspend a penny.
Today it's a quaint way ofsaying someone needs to visit
the restroom, but it has quiteliteral origins In the 19th
(24:58):
century Britain.
Public restrooms, often foundat railway stations, charged one
penny for the use of a toilet.
The phrase became shorthand forneeding the use of facilities,
as one would indeed have tospend a penny.
But isn't it curious that evensomething as mundane as a
nature's call can be tied tomoney?
There's always a cost, it seems, even for the most basic human
(25:22):
needs.
Over time, the phrase has stuck, and while the penny is no
longer required to answernature's call, the expression
endures a little linguisticrelic of a time when a single
coin could open the doors toconvenience and comfort.
But pennies aren't just aboutspending, are they?
(25:43):
They're tied to all sorts ofbeliefs about fortune, both good
and bad.
There's something deeply humanabout attributing luck to the
things that we touch every day,as if the universe is trying to
communicate through the smallestof signs, as if the universe is
trying to communicate throughthe smallest of signs.
(26:04):
Beyond the rhyme about pickingup pennies, other ancient
beliefs suggest that copper,once the primary metal in
pennies, has protective powers.
It wasn't just seen as valuablefor trade or craftsmanship, but
as a material that could fendoff evil.
In some cultures, copper coinswere placed over the doorways
and were used in rituals tobring health and prosperity.
(26:27):
But there's even older storiesthat go back to Roman times,
where a coin in the mouth of thedead is said to ensure the safe
passage.
So whether you're picking up apenny from the sidewalk or
spending a penny in the oldfashion sense, remember that
these little pieces of metalhave carried with them not only
the value, but the superstition,mystery and sometimes a touch
(26:50):
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, maybeit's just best left where it is.
You've been listening to PodcastFolklore and my name's Kayleigh
.
I hope you've enjoyed ourepisode today on money, pennies
and coins.
Join me next time as we uncovermore stories hidden in folklore
(27:14):
surrounding us.
Until then, keep an eye on yourwallet and you never know what
tales your money might carry.
And remember to always explorethe world with wonder.
They say a penny saved is a penny earned.
But what is a penny worth instories?
The kind of tales that stretchback to ancient times, wrapped
in copper, stamped with kingsand presidents, passed through
countless hands, from pocket topocket and sometimes into
strangest places?
Today we're taking a journeythrough time and space, through
(00:29):
the history and the myths of thehumble penny.
Pennies may seem insignificant,a mere fraction of a dollar or
(01:02):
a pound, but they've playedtheir part in history more than
you might think.
You've probably heard the oldsaying find a penny, pick it up,
and all day long you'll havegood luck.
But what about the pennies isit that brings bad luck?
Well, those that have witnessedsecrets never meant to be
revealed.
Let's start with the year 1909.
It was a momentous year for thepenny in America.
(01:24):
Us Mint decided to replace theimage of Lady Liberty, who had
graced the penny for over 60years, with someone new, abraham
Lincoln.
It was controversial.
A lot of people were uneasyabout putting a real person on
the coin.
It felt too close to royaltythose kind of coins minted by
emperors.
But it stuck.
(01:46):
Lincoln, the man who saved theunion, became the face of the
penny.
But here's the twist Some ofthose first Lincoln pennies bore
a tiny marking that would causechaos in the coin collecting
world A small VDB, hidden underLincoln's shoulders, the
initials of Victor David Brenner, the coin's designer.
(02:08):
It seemed innocent enough, butpeople saw it as vanity, an
artist marking his territory,and so only a small number of
these VDB pennies were mintedbefore the initials were removed
.
Today, they're one of the mostsought-after coins in history.
One man's initials turned apenny worth one cent into
(02:30):
something worth thousands.
And that's the funny thingabout pennies sometimes their
true value is hidden rightbeneath the surface.
Now let's talk about one of themore unsettling stories tied to
pennies.
In 1937, a man named JohnHenderson was said to have a
(02:53):
peculiar fear of pennies.
It wasn't that he thought theywere bad luck.
No, john believed pennies werecursed.
You see, during the Greatdepression, john, like many
others, found himself broke indesperation.
He robbed an old shop in hishometown in upstate new york,
taking whatever cash was in theregister.
(03:14):
The problem, it was mostlypennies.
That night he noticed somethingstrange.
Every time he tried to spendone of those pennies, something
went wrong.
A fight broke out in the bar.
After he tipped the bartenderwith one, he lost money on a
horse race when he used anotherto place a bet and soon after
strange accidents seemed tofollow him wherever he went.
(03:36):
John became convinced that thepennies from the robbery were
cursed, part of some cosmicpunishment for his crime.
They say he returned every lastone to the shop and for the
rest of his life he refused totouch a single penny.
Of course there's no proof thatpennies are cursed, but maybe,
just maybe, it's not the pennies, maybe it's us.
(04:01):
Pennies have been with us forcenturies.
In medieval England theyweren't just money, they were a
symbol of power, a king's facestamped on the coin, a reminder
that every transaction, everytrade was in his name.
They were so valuable thatpeople would actually cut them
into pieces, literally intohalves and quarters, because
(04:23):
even a fraction of a penny wasworth something.
In a world without smallercoins Today we don't give
pennies a second thought.
Some people toss them intofountains, hoping for a wish to
come true.
Others throw them away,thinking they're worthless.
But the truth is, pennies havestories.
They've been carried in thepockets of soldiers and thieves.
(04:44):
They've been dropped into thehands of beggars and kings.
Pennies have stories.
They've been carried in thepockets of soldiers and thieves.
They've been dropped into thehands of beggars and kings.
Pennies have traveled throughtime from ancient empires to
modern day, often overlooked butalways present, and maybe the
next penny you pick up has itsown story waiting to be told.
Now, not all penny stories arequite so dark.
(05:05):
In fact, some are downrightabsurd.
Did you know that in 2015, aman named Anders Schmidt decided
to pay off his car loan inpennies?
Yeah, all 300,000 of them.
It took the bank hours to countit all, and though his point
was clear, pennies were stilllegal tender even though they
(05:28):
were inconvenient, he wasn'twrong, but one might wonder if
he had the patience to collectall those pennies.
What else could he have donewith his time?
Maybe he found some rare onesin the mix, like those VDB
pennies that we talked aboutearlier.
Maybe he was just proving apoint that was worth far more
than a cent.
(05:50):
Coins are currency and they tellus of their journeys.
One particular coin, an ancientRoman coin, a denarius.
These silver coins were usedthroughout the Roman Empire and,
while many of them were variedwith their owners, some were
stolen.
In 1957, archaeologistsuncovered a tomb of a Roman
(06:12):
soldier in the city of Bath inEngland.
Amongst his remains was a smallpile of denarii minted during
the reign of the Emperor Nero.
According to the legend, anyonewho dared to disturb the
soldier's grave would be cursed.
And sure enough, strange thingsbegan happening to the workers
involved in the excavation.
One of the archaeologists whopocketed one of the coins died
(06:36):
suddenly in a car crash.
Another fell mysteriously illand was bedridden for weeks.
Others reported strangenightmares with visions of Roman
soldiers marching in the deadof night, demanding their coins
back.
The coins were returned to thetomb and the disturbances
seemingly stopped, but to thisday, superstitions about Roman
(06:57):
coins persist.
In fact, many collectorsbelieve that holding on to such
coins without understandingtheir history brings bad luck.
Perhaps the spirits of theirowners still cling to these tiny
little pieces of history,waiting to reclaim what was once
theirs.
On a lighter side of things,pennies can inspire more than
just fortune or fear.
(07:18):
They can inspire art.
Take, for example, the case ofOtha Anders.
In 2015, anders cashed in acollection of pennies he'd been
saving for over 45 years.
A single penny here, a handfulthere, collected meticulously
until he had amassed over half amillion pennies.
(07:38):
When he finally took them tothe bank, the haul weighed over
£2,800 and amounted to more than$5,000.
But what's interesting isn'tjust the amount.
Anders had carefully stackedand arranged the pennies in his
home, creating what he called apenny pyramid.
It became a monument to hispatience and perseverance, and
(08:02):
more than that, it was just astatement about value.
Anders believed that everypenny mattered, every small
effort counted, and togetherthey built something far larger
than the sum of its parts.
It's a reminder that, while wemay pass pennies without a
second thought, there are thosewho see them as treasures in
their own right.
(08:22):
There are those who see them astreasures in their own right.
Let's travel back even furtherin time, to the days of ancient
Judah, where a simple coinbecame a symbol of faith and
sacrifice.
In the Gospel of Mark, there isa story of the widow's mite.
(08:43):
It was said that Jesus watchedas a wealthy citizen of
Jerusalem made grand offeringsat the temple, one after the
other, throwing large sums intothe treasury.
But then came a poor widow whodropped us in just two small
copper coins, mites worth only afraction of a penny.
Jesus turned to his disciplesand declared that the widow had
(09:04):
given more than all the others.
Her two tiny coins, given outof poverty, were worth more than
the riches of those who gavethem from their surplus.
Over time, the widow's mite hasbecome a symbol of generosity
and of giving from the heartrather than the wallet.
But what happened to thewidow's mite themselves?
(09:26):
Many were thought to have beenlost to time, but some ancient
mites still survive today.
Collectors and religiousinstitutions prized them, and
they serve as a reminder thatsometimes the smallest coins can
carry the greatest meaning.
Now let's fast forward to WorldWar II.
The year was 1943 and theUnited States was in the middle
(09:50):
of conflict.
Copper was in high demand forthe war, so the US Mint made a
decision Pennies would no longerbe made from copper but from
steel.
It seemed like a simple change,but then something strange
happened.
A small number of copperpennies were accidentally minted
that year.
(10:10):
An oversight, a rare mistake,and those 1943 copper pennies
became one of the mostsought-after coins in American
history.
To this day, no one knowsexactly how many were made.
Only about 20 have beenconfirmed to exist, and they've
sold for over a million dollarsat auction.
It's almost poetic, isn't it?
(10:32):
In the midst of war, with anation focused on victory and
sacrifice, a handful of copperpennies slipped through the
cracks, and now those tinycopper discs are worth more than
anyone could have imagined atthe time.
Coins have long been associatedwith the dead.
In ancient Greece, it wascustomary to place a coin known
(10:55):
as an obol in the mouth or onthe eyes of a deceased.
This coin was a payment for theferryman who would carry the
soul across the river Styx intothe afterlife.
Without the coin, it wasbelieved that the soul would be
left.
Left to wander the shores ofthe river for eternity, never
finding rest.
(11:15):
This tradition didn't stayconfined to ancient Greece.
Throughout medieval Europe,pennies and small coins were
placed in the eyes of the deadto ensure safe passage to the
afterlife.
And while the practice hasmainly faded in the modern world
, echoes of it still remain.
We still see coins left ongraves, a sign of respect, a
(11:39):
small offering to the departed.
In fact, in many culturespennies have long been seen as a
connection between the livingand the dead.
They appear in ghost storiesand folklore as signs of the
afterlife.
Have you ever found a penny onthe ground and thought where did
this come from?
Some believe that when you finda penny, it's a message from
(12:02):
the departed or a loved one, areminder that they're still
watching over you.
You'll think twice next timewhen you pick up a penny and
you'll think about its origins.
Pennies are also tied to allkinds of superstitions.
You've probably heard that apenny on the ground heads up is
(12:22):
good luck, but did you know thatin many cultures people place
pennies over doorways to protecttheir homes?
It's an old superstition datingback to the belief that copper
and other metals could ward offevil spirits.
The idea is simple if you kepta penny over the door, evil
couldn't cross the threshold.
This tradition still lingers inparts of rural America and
(12:46):
Europe.
Some people put pennies in thefoundations of new houses for
good luck and under the firststone of a new building.
And whilst the superstitionsmay seem silly, they're rooted
in ancient practices, remindersthat pennies, like so many small
things, can carry an enormoussymbolic weight.
In the 1980s, a group ofpsychologists decided to test
(13:08):
just how much we value luck whenit comes to pennies.
They created an experimentwhere they planted pennies on
the sidewalks of New York City.
Some pennies were placed headsup, others heads down.
They watched as people passedby, counting how many people
picked up the pennies.
The results people were farmore likely to pick up the heads
(13:32):
up pennies, believing them tobring good luck.
While the tails up pennies wereoften left alone, even when
they were just lying on thesidewalk, these pennies seem to
take on a magical quality,embracing that folklore and
superstition.
It's funny how a simple objectcan become imbued with such
meaning just because of the wayit lands.
(13:54):
But money, it's a funny thing.
It drives us, compels us andsometimes even destroys us.
Wars have been fought over it,fortunes have been built on it
and entire lives have beenconsumed by its pursuit.
But what happens when moneybecomes more than just currency,
(14:18):
when it turns into a symbol ofpower?
Mystery or even danger of power, mystery or even danger?
From cursed treasures toelusive fortunes, stories of
money show us that when it comesto money and currency, there's
often more at stake than meetsthe eye.
(14:39):
A tale that has haunted treasurehunters for over 150 years is
the legend of the lostConfederate gold.
In 1865, as the Civil War wascoming to a bitter end, rumors
began to circulate that theConfederate government had
hidden a vast treasure millionsof dollars in gold.
To prevent it falling into theUnion hands, the money, they say
(15:03):
, was loaded into wagons andscattered across the South,
hidden in caves, buried inforests or dropped into the
bottom of deep rivers.
Many have claimed to know wherethe treasure lies, but none
have found it.
Some say it's cursed.
Those who seek are doomed tofailure or worse.
In fact, in 1921, a treasurehunter named John McCarty set
(15:28):
out to find the gold in Georgia.
He was convinced he hadpinpointed its location.
Days later, his body was foundin the woods, his throat slit
and the gold nowhere to be found.
Some said it was the band ofvengeful spirits guarding the
treasure.
Others believed it was rivalgold treasure hunters willing to
(15:51):
kill to keep the gold hidden.
To this day, the Confederategold remains one of the most
elusive treasures in history,and those who search for it
often find only disappointmentor something far worse.
When we think about money, weoften think about wealth, power
and the desire for more.
But what happens when thedesire goes too far?
(16:19):
The ancient Greeks knew thisall too well, and so they gave
us the tale of King Midas.
According to legend, midas wasa king of great wealth, but he
was never satisfied.
One day, after showing kindnessto the god Dionysus, he was
granted a single wish.
Without hesitation, midas askedfor everything that he touched
to turn to gold.
(16:40):
At first it seemed like theperfect gift flowers, fruits,
furniture everything Midas laidhis hands on shimmered with
golden brilliance.
But soon the gift turned into acurse.
His food turned to gold beforehe could eat it, his wine became
undrinkable and, worst of all,when his beloved daughter ran to
(17:03):
him, she too became a lifelessgolden statue.
Desperate Midas begged the godto undo the wish to rid him of
the very thing he wanted morethan anything.
The god took pity on him,telling Midas to wash in the
river of Pactolus.
(17:23):
The curse was lifted, but theriver sands turned to gold.
The lesson In pursuit of wealthsometimes we risk losing
everything we hold dear.
Today we still speak of theMidas touch, but we often forget
the darker side of the story,the part where too much of a
(17:44):
good thing can lead to tragedy.
Not all money stories are aboutmyths and curses.
Some are about the very real,very daring things people do to
get their hands on it.
Take, for example, the GreatBrinks robbery of 1950.
It was one of the largest andmost famous heists in American
(18:06):
history and it played outsomething like straight out of a
crime novel.
The gang responsible spentmonths planning the heist.
They studied the routines ofthe Brinks employees, mapped out
the vault, gathered the toolsto bypass the security systems
and on the night of January, the17th 1950, they executed their
(18:27):
plan perfectly, breaking intoBrinks Armoured Car Depot in
Boston and walking away with$2.7 million, the equivalent of
over $30 million today.
What made the robbery soinfamous wasn't just the size of
the hall, but the sheeraudacity of it.
The thieves left almost notrace and for years the police
(18:50):
had no ends.
The heist was so clean that itbecame known as the perfect
crime.
But as with most things,perfection is hard to maintain.
In the end, the group'sparanoia got the better of them
and, one by one, they werecaught just days before the
statute of limitations wouldhave run out.
(19:11):
Almost none of the money wasnever recovered.
The irony Most of the thieveslived in constant fear and
distrust after the robbery,afraid that one of their
partners would betray them.
The heist was supposed to setthem free and it ended up being
a prison of their own making.
Money can be a strange thing.
(19:32):
It can bias things, pay ourdebts, secure our futures.
But what happens when moneybecomes so common, so worthless,
that it can't even buy youanything at all.
In Zimbabwe in the early 2000s,inflation spread out of control
.
The government printed more andmore money, but as they did,
the value of the currencyplummeted.
(19:54):
Prices doubled, then tripled,and soon they were rising so
fast that people had to carrywheelbarrows full of cash just
to buy a loaf of bread.
At the height of this crisis,the Zimbabwean government issued
a $100 trillion note.
Yes, a trillion, with 12 zeros.
(20:17):
It was the largest denominationof currency ever printed, but
by then it was worthless than apiece of paper that it was
printed on.
People would laugh at theabsurdity of it all.
Imagine being a trillionaireand still not being able to
afford a meal.
Today, those trillion dollarnotes are worthless worthless as
(20:38):
currency and highly soughtafter by collectors.
They serve as a soberingreminder of what happens when a
country's economy collapses,when money loses all meaning.
And yet there's something oddlyfascinating about holding a
bill with so many zeros, proofthat, even in chaos, money still
(20:58):
holds a strange power over us.
Of all the stories about money,none are quite as perplexing as
the mystery of DB Cooper.
On November, the 24th 1971, aman using the name Dan Cooper
hijacked a Boeing 727 flyingfrom Portland to Seattle.
(21:20):
He calmly informed the flightattendant that he had a bomb and
demanded $200,000 in cash andfour parachutes.
When the plane landed inSeattle, cooper's demands were
met, he released the passengersand directed the remaining crew
to take off again, heading southSomewhere over the dense
(21:40):
forests of the Pacific Northwest, Cooper opened the rear door
and parachuted into the night,clutching the ransom money.
He was never seen again.
The FBI launched an intensivemanhunt but despite decades of
searching, no trace of Cooper orthe money was ever found.
(22:02):
Except for one clue in 1980, ayoung boy discovered three
packets of the ransom moneyburied along the banks of the
Columbia River, still bundled inthe original rubber bands.
But the mystery remains.
Did DB Cooper survived the jump?
Did he hide the rest of themoney somewhere deep in the
original rubber bands?
But the mystery remains.
Did DB Cooper survive the jump?
Did he hide the rest of themoney somewhere deep in the
(22:24):
forest or did he perish, leavingthe cash as an unsolved enigma?
Cooper became a folklore hero,a symbol of the ultimate outlaw,
and even though the caseremains cold, the legend of DB
Cooper and his missing fortunecontinues to captivate us to
(22:45):
this day.
Money has always been a targetfor thieves, but few thieves
were as audacious as the Naziregime during World War II.
In a covert operation known asOperation Bernhard, nazi Germany
attempted one of the mostambitious forgery schemes in
(23:06):
history.
Their goal To destabilize theBritish economy by flooding it
with counterfeit Bank of Englandnotes.
The operation was led by SSMajor Bernhard Kruger, who
assembled a team of skilledforgers, many of them Jewish
prisoners in the concentrationcamps.
These men were forced toproduce incredibly high quality
(23:28):
forgeries, so convincing thateven the British banking system
couldn't tell them apart fromthe real thing.
At its height, operationBernhardt produced millions of
pounds in counterfeit money andthe plan was to drop fake notes
over Britain by plane, causinginflation and financial chaos.
But by the time the operationwas ready, the war was nearing
(23:51):
its end and the forgeries werenever fully developed and
deployed.
Instead, most of thecounterfeit money was dumped in
lakes or hidden.
After the war, some of thecounterfeit notes resurfaced,
causing confusion and panic inthe banking world.
Even today, some of these notesremain in circulation,
(24:12):
undetectable to the untrainedeye.
It's strange, though even now,some of the money in your pocket
might not be as legitimate asyou think.
Money it's always been morethan just a means of exchange.
It holds a strange kind ofpower, doesn't it?
From superstition to history,from folklore to fortune, money
(24:35):
has its own stories to tell, andeven the smallest coins pennies
are surrounded by mystery, luckand strange twists of fate.
But there's also an old sayingspend a penny.
Today it's a quaint way ofsaying someone needs to visit
the restroom, but it has quiteliteral origins In the 19th
(24:58):
century Britain.
Public restrooms, often foundat railway stations, charged one
penny for the use of a toilet.
The phrase became shorthand forneeding the use of facilities,
as one would indeed have tospend a penny.
But isn't it curious that evensomething as mundane as a
nature's call can be tied tomoney?
There's always a cost, it seems, even for the most basic human
(25:22):
needs.
Over time, the phrase has stuck, and while the penny is no
longer required to answernature's call, the expression
endures a little linguisticrelic of a time when a single
coin could open the doors toconvenience and comfort.
But pennies aren't just aboutspending, are they?
(25:43):
They're tied to all sorts ofbeliefs about fortune, both good
and bad.
There's something deeply humanabout attributing luck to the
things that we touch every day,as if the universe is trying to
communicate through the smallestof signs, as if the universe is
trying to communicate throughthe smallest of signs.
(26:04):
Beyond the rhyme about pickingup pennies, other ancient
beliefs suggest that copper,once the primary metal in
pennies, has protective powers.
It wasn't just seen as valuablefor trade or craftsmanship, but
as a material that could fendoff evil.
In some cultures, copper coinswere placed over the doorways
and were used in rituals tobring health and prosperity.
(26:27):
But there's even older storiesthat go back to Roman times,
where a coin in the mouth of thedead is said to ensure the safe
passage.
So whether you're picking up apenny from the sidewalk or
spending a penny in the oldfashion sense, remember that
these little pieces of metalhave carried with them not only
the value, but the superstition,mystery and sometimes a touch
(26:50):
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, maybeit's just best left where it is.
You've been listening to PodcastFolklore and my name's Kayleigh
.
I hope you've enjoyed ourepisode today on money, pennies
and coins.
Join me next time as we uncovermore stories hidden in folklore
(27:14):
surrounding us.
Until then, keep an eye on yourwallet and you never know what
tales your money might carry.
And remember to always explorethe world with wonder.
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