Pennies on Headstones

At Decoration Day, I noticed a few headstones with pennies left on them and we were discussing what that could mean.  I came home and did a little research and it’s such a neat tradition that I wanted to share it with you.

I knew of the Jewish tradition of leaving stones on graves so I started there.  There was more to it than I realized.  Apparently, this tradition may have started out very practically as stones were necessary to protect a grave.  Over time, it became a symbol of respect to place a stone (more of a pebble now I think) whenever you visited.

This coin tradition is similar, but seems to have military roots according to Military.com.  Way back, the ancient Greeks would put coins on the eyes or in the mouths of fallen soldiers.  They had the idea that the dead might need some funds in the next world.  During the Vietnam era, challenge coins representing individual military branches became popular as a memorial.

Different denominations of coins may be left based on your relationship with the deceased.  Pennies are most common and indicate remembrance.  Nickels are for schoolmates, dimes for co-workers and quarters indicate you were with the person when he or she passed away. 

For military graves, the nickel may indicate you trained together, the dime that you served together and the quarter again indicates you were at his side when he passed away. 

If I had a loved one who’d died in action, I think it would be a real comfort to find a quarter and know that another hero had visited.

While it’s a new tradition for me, this is definitely one I want to continue.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that the coins are eventually collected and used to fund cemetery maintenance.