Picking up a Penny

­General Information About Item:

  • Type of Lore: Customary, Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country: United States
  • Informant: Samantha (Sam) Locke
  • Date Collected: 5/21/20

Informant Data:

  • Samantha Locke is a Sophomore at Dartmouth College. She lives in Marin County, California, near San Francisco in the bay area of California.

Contextual Data:­

  • Cultural Context: The informant speculates that she learned this superstition first from books, and then later encountered it in reality when talking to a woman she met at a local post office. This woman added that the penny must be heads up when found, or else it doesn’t count.
  • Social Context: This piece of folklore has more of a material than a social context. It applies to chance events in the material world more than social or interpersonal situations.

Item:

  • If you see a heads-up penny lying on the ground, picking it up and carrying it with you will grant you good luck for a day. However, if the penny is tails-up, it is meaningless and has no bearing on your luck.

 

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

 

Transcript:

  • “If you see a penny that’s heads up, you have to put it with you so it stays with you all day. It only works for one day, so it’s good luck, but if it’s tails up, then it means nothing.”

Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant can point to a source for most of the superstition – she was told that finding a heads-up penny is good luck and that finding a tails-up penny is bad luck. However, the informant is unsure as to the origin of the rest of the superstition (you must carry the penny on your person). The informant speculates she might have added this portion herself.
  • The informant indicated she would often put the penny in her shoe to carry it around with her.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I have also encountered this superstition, albeit in a slightly different form. I never encountered the requirement to carry the penny with me, only that viewing a heads-up penny implied good luck. I was also told that a tails-up penny is bad luck, but in the version documented here that is not true.

Collector’s Name: Ted McManus

Tags/Keywords:

  • Penny, Good Luck, Superstition, Luck