Thursday, June 1, 2017

Pennies on tombstones

I had never heard of this before, but the Queen Of The World found something really interesting:
A coin left on a headstone lets the deceased soldier's family know that somebody stopped by to pay their respects.

If you leave a penny, it means you visited. A nickel means that you and the deceased soldier trained at boot camp together. If you served with the soldier, you leave a dime. A quarter is very significant because it means that you were there when that soldier was killed.
I'm going to start carrying pennies with me when I visit cemeteries.

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

I did not know this. I think I may start carrying pennies also

.45ACP+P said...

I had become aware of this and left coins at the graves of the patriots I visited last year in Massachusetts. Paul Revere, James Otis, Sam Adams in Boston and Isaac Davis, Abner Hosmer, and James Hayward in Acton.

Old NFO said...

And depending on the unit, e.g. Triple Nickel (555th Fighter Sqdn), a nickle might be left by any visitor. Done that before, at Arlington and other Veteran's cemeteries.

Brad_in_IL said...

Interesting. Reminds me a bit of the Jewish tradition of leaving small stones on grave markers.