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:

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

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  2. 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.

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  3. 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.

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

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