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I was researching an emotionally difficult issue when I retrieved a voicemail from Cousin Tom, official advisor to this blog. “Anne, I’ve been reading the blog and it’s getting a little depressing,” he said. “I mean, I read the John Mellencamp post and now that he’s dating Meg Ryan, maybe you can do a positive post on that.” Heady stuff cousin Tom, heady stuff. If you wondered at all, I have lots of positive things to share. I mean, I find pennies. I’ve been reluctant to share this because it seems sometimes pedantic, and I haven’t quite figured out why I find them. So I talked to my work colleague Gloria about it, asking, “Hey Glow, am I making this up or do I find pennies a lot?” She pondered a moment. “Gallagher, I never find pennies except when I am with you. You find them all the time. I never do.” Glow and I were walking out of our office the other day and there one sat. “Where did that come from?” she asked. “I just walked through here and there was no penny.” I picked it up and smiled. I find them all the time. I’m not quite sure what they mean but I think they are a sign of some sort. I interpret them to be signs telling me to continue on with things I am not always comfortable with, like writing this blog and working to complete the longer memoir on it. “Glow, what do pennies mean to you?” I asked, hoping she had some insight I lacked. She did. Some people see finding pennies as good luck; others see a penny with the ‘tails’ side down and flip it over to the “heads” side so someone else will have good luck; we throw pennies on ponds and wish on them; they are a sign of something or other; and for some people, they mean absolutely nothing. I find pennies and they encourage me though I’m not sure why. Do you find pennies? Do you find anything? What do they mean to you?
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Anne On Fire 
Hello Anne – I just found your blog when I googled “finding pennies”..Last year at the beginning of a new relationship I asked my spirit guides to send me a sign if Harry really cared for me – and I found one penny soon after that request. For about 6 months of this rocky relationships – whenever I wondered what Harry was feeling, I found a penny – and then he’d call soon. I’d find them in very unusual places – only ONE penny at a time. This year we have been mostly not together, and haven’t seen many pennies – but lately – it’s started again. When I tell my friends all the odd places these pennies show up – they don’t believe me – and also in words – an Indian store in Penang put my dresses in a cloth shopping bag that said “I love Pennies” …and it was the only one – all their bags said something different. Our fav lunch place was “Pennies Noodles” which is where I last saw him. But, haven’t heard from him since and trying to let it go — except now – I keep finding those darn Pennies and can’t understand WHY. It’s driving me crazy! I wonder if it is connected to Harry – or my guides just having fun with me?
Louise
[…] Just then, Tina gasped. As we looked over to her in our pew, she help up a shiny Canadian penny. Tracy and I gasped. “What does it mean,” I asked, even though I was well aware of the phenomenon of finding pennies. […]
[…] intrigue other people too — roughly 100 people have randomly visited my blog and the I Find Pennies post through Internet searches for “Finding Pennies,” and ”What Do Pennies […]
I love finding pennies! I have no idea why…..they just make me smile and appreciate small pleasures that build up to big ones in hindsight. Its kinda like an inside joke between me and God, a wink, a nudge that the mundane is exciting if we want it to be. I lose myself in where that penny came from, its journey to how it got there, and now to me…..its a gift, smalll, but priceless gift of upcoming abundance at the same time.
Cathy — well said. It’s amazing how something so simple can bring us so much joy. Thank you for sharing.
I’ve been finding pennies recently too! Today I found three and over the past week, I have found a total of 9 pennies and one quarter! I don’t know if someone is leaving random pennies laying around in public places like the hallway toy dorm or on the bus, but I take it as a sign of pure luck. 🙂 Sometimes we just have to go with the flow and pick up the pennies someone else has misplaced.
Rachel — I think there are a lot of us penny finders out there, though like you sometimes it’s dimes (really important message I imagine) or quarters (uber important!). Today, I met a woman who finds stray dogs and cats. I love hearing what people find — and love that we are open enough to notice what’s trying to find us. Thanks for sharing.
The question you’ve asked about what it is we find got me thinking about old stuff and collections. I’ve been hunting and gathering bits and pieces of treasure or most of my life. And I’m a bit of a magpie when it comes to finding a glimmer and shine along with the grit that gives patina to the well worn and loved pieces of the past.
My findings aren’t just those things I literally “find”, they’re more likely things the find me. I was fortunate to have become a flea market junkie in my early years and back in the day when my friends were spending their dollars in bars and restaurants, I was spending my pennies in the flea markets, especially the big mama of them all near my hometown in Kane County, Illinois. Oh, the stuff I have collected…
At one point early on when I had little room for big old things like doors and windows or anything too large, I became obsessed with old photos, especially those precious studio shots of a babies, children, first communions, bar mitzvahs, graduations, engaged couples, weddings, all the important moments of a life captured on Kodak, or tin back then.
Owing to the parallel immigrant stories of my own family, both eastern European Jews and famine fleeing Irish, I was short on a pictorial to lend texture and narration to that lost ancestral history. Collecting at flea markets those images of other families, often for as little as $1 for a full box that otherwise would have been discarded, gave me a connection to a past that I could not claim for myself. I knew the photos I bought were the riches of another family and I couldn’t bear to think they might be plundered. So, I kept acquiring them. They became surrogates for my lost relatives and I imagined elaborate, detailed, if not wishful and quite fictional, stories about them and their history. And they didn’t take up much space.
I am not sure if the collection just got out of hand or if an irrational period of aversion to all things male took hold of me, but I once separated the photos of women from those of the men and without a thought, pitched the man pics, a perverse act I have lived to regret. It was the 80’s, though, and there was a popular Hall and Oats song of the time: “Man-Eater”, possibly I was mistaken and heard “man hater”? The ease with which I discarded those photos, though, haunts me now and I reflect on how inconsistent it was with my initial intentions to save those families.
I do keep my cache of the surviving girls and women in a special place; protected now with an exquisite satin ribbon, respectful of their precious spirit.
My husband of 25 years, an interior designer by profession, has always been tolerant if not quite accepting of my old stuff collections, even my girls, but early on drew the line at the broken and unfixable or furnishings that creaked and bent or otherwise appeared too fragile to use. He’s managed to part us from the more unworthy pieces of my indiscriminate collecting, but does keep an open mind and room for the more quirky riches of the hoard.
I am inspired from your post now, to sift through my findings and maybe add some to the cache.
I might even let my guard down and invite some boys to the secret girls club I’ve sheltered so long. I’m sure they’ll start finding me.
Jaime — what wonderful thoughts. I love how things find you. Maybe you have the concept for your own blog on your treasures. Thank you so much for sharing! Anne
Nice! I see 711 or 111 or 1111 ALL the time. Another type of sign from the angels!
Eva — That is so very cool. It’s reassuring to me that everyone can see a sign or find something that keeps them on their track. I guess when it all comes down to it, these things mean as little or lot as we make them. I of course think they are great guides just like you do!
Darlin’ love that you find pennies! I actually find stones and rocks in the shape of hearts quite a lot. More often than not. Rather fun. It’s my reminder that love is always the best choice in life!
Patty: That makes my day. In the shape of hearts? What could be better. I just love this. Once you start looking, it’s amazing what we find.