More on Coins

That’s not the only unusual coin event to happen to me lately. Those of you who knew me in high school may remember that I had an uncanny knack for finding pennies on the ground. I still do find more than the average person, I think, but for some reason I was at the top of my game then. I once found seven-and-a-half pennies in one day. (No, not a half-penny—I actually found a one-cent piece sheared in two. And seven regular pennies.)

That was my record until one day during the Christmas season. In December I was shopping on Fourth Street in Berkeley and managed to get a parking place in the Cody’s lot, which is nearly unheard of between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. So I felt pretty lucky already. When I returned to my car, I noticed a zip-lock baggie on the ground near my front tire that turned out to be full of pennies—well over a hundred, I estimate.

Usually I pick up the pennies I find—I guess I sort of halfway believe that it’s good luck. But this baggie I left. It seemed a little greedy to try to claim the luck of over one hundred pennies. I reasoned that probably someone there could use the money more than me--although north Berkeley is the kind of neighborhood where people throw away their pennies, so you never know. Still, it seemed like the right thing to do.

(You’re right; I’m exaggerating. No one in Berkeley throws away pennies. It’s Berkeley—they recycle them.)