Finding a coin
Old English writers recorded the belief that finding a coin on the street was unlucky and that found money should be spent, not kept. That old rule turns the find into a question about what you do with things you did not earn.
What it may mean
A coin at your feet is the purest kind of windfall: nobody gave it to you, you did nothing to earn it, and it will never be missed. Old English writers had firm views on such money. One listed finding it among the signs of ill fortune, and another said found money must not be kept but spent. Whatever you think of the superstition, the rule behind it is interesting: unearned fortune should keep moving. So as you pick up a found coin, you might think about your other windfalls, a break you did not plan, a kindness you did not expect, an advantage you were born with, and what you do with them. Do you hoard them, spend them on yourself, or pass something along? A quarter is small, but the habit it tests is not.
Depending on how you saw it
A penny by a parking meter or a car door
Coins gather where people fumble: by parking meters, car doors, bus stops and checkout lanes, wherever keys and phones come out of pockets in a hurry. You find what someone else's rush left behind. What could you pick up today from moments other people were too busy to notice?
A coin in the middle of the crosswalk
A coin lying in traffic is not worth the risk, however shiny it looks. Some finds are best admired and left where they are. Which small gain have you been chasing that costs more attention than it is worth?
A worn coin from decades ago
A coin with a date from before you were born may have passed through thousands of hands, registers and vending machines on its way to your feet. It has been useful to every one of them. What have you been passing along that keeps on being useful long after it leaves you?
A coin that will not come up
Every so often a coin turns out to be glued to the sidewalk, a prank that catches the people who bend for it. The laugh is mostly harmless. Have you reached for something lately that looked free and turned out to be stuck?
Why it happens in nature
Coins slip out of pockets and purses when people pull out keys, phones, gloves or wallets, which is why they collect near parking meters, car doors, checkout lanes and bus stops. Small change is often left where it falls because most passersby do not bother to pick it up. A coin can stay in circulation for decades, passing through countless hands.
What folk beliefs say
England
Melton's Astrologaster, quoted by Brand, includes in its catalog of popular English beliefs the idea that finding money is a sign of ill fortune.
Source: John Brand; Henry Ellis (ed.), Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, vol. 3 (1849), vol. 3, p. 251. View the page
England
Robert Greene, in his Art of Conny-Catching, wrote that it was unlucky to keep money you had found, and Brand adds the moral of the day: found money must therefore be spent.
Source: John Brand; Henry Ellis (ed.), Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, vol. 3 (1849), vol. 3, p. 251. View the page
England
Dr. Nathaniel Home, writing in London in 1650 and quoted by Brand, mocked ordinary people who thought that finding a piece of iron foretold good fortune while finding a piece of silver foretold the opposite.
Source: John Brand; Henry Ellis (ed.), Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, vol. 3 (1849), vol. 3, p. 251. View the page
To reflect on
What windfall in your life could you pass along instead of keeping?