Letter from a Lonely Penny

Some pennies aren't just found...they aparently have a story to tell! The following is a letter I received from Adam when he gave me his first found penny. Poor, poor little penny!

Leslie:

I wanted to tell you my story and thank you for rescuing me from a life of destruction and despair.
I am a penny. My life has been filled with ups and mostly downs. I was born in the Philadelphia mint, having never met my parents. I was quickly bundled with 49 fellow orphan pennies and shipped to a Bank of America in Miami, Florida. The first six month of my life were glorious; I spent approximately 150 days travelling the hot spots of South Beach. Some of the highlights included changing hands during the purchase of: 16 ice cream cones, 2 thong bikinis, 27 tequila shots, and 14 beers.

Then came October 17, 2002, a day that changed my life forever, and not in a good way. I fell out of the pocket of a pair of board shorts, spending the next three years and twelve days buried in the sand. When I was finally “rescued,” it was by a homeless drug addict. I spent the next year of my life helping to stir heroin as it was being boiled on small squares of tin foil. I can assure you that scars go much deeper than the physical imperfections you see.

November 2006, my “owner” was recruited as a drug mule and given $300 to ride a bus to New York City while carrying a duffle bag full of marijuana. During a 2:00 AM rest stop at the Greyhound bus station in Washington, DC, I thought things would improve when I was accidentally dropped in the parking lot. No such luck, I was picked up by Tonya, a twenty-four year old street walker who was trolling the bus station for johns. Tonya had just earned $25 doing bad things for 30 minutes behind a dumpster. Apparently stumbling across me solidified her good day and made me her “Lucky Penny.”

I fully admit that all pennies are born with the dream of being a Lucky Penny. But they never tell you at the Mint that you might be a Lucky Penny for a two tooth missing, seventh grade finishing, street walking whore named Tonya. But, I digress.

As Tonya’s Lucky Penny, I have witnessed depravity and hardships no penny should have to see. It is far easier to count the mornings I did not cry myself to sleep, Tonya worked at night, than the morning where sleep came easy. I will not lie, I thought about ending it all and drowning myself in a sewer many times. And yes, much of my physical wear and tear is from lying down in a parking lot, hoping a car would put me out of my misery. Alas, it was only days ago that relief finally came. Tonya had just finished a $40 depravity that I will not sicken you with here. When she exited the back of the beat up 1998 Pontiac Grand AM, I fell free, and my journey to redemption began. It was only three days in the alley before I was found by my savior Adam.

Adam has cleaned me up and given me a stable home. The four days in his care have been amazing. I will never forget the hardships, but I have been reminded of the good that also exists in the world. I am so excited and ready to do something positive with my life, helping your cause in any way I can.

Thank you,
One Lonely Penny

History of the Penny Project

On December 29, 2006 while walking home from work, I found a $20 bill in the crosswalk. Obviously excited about this little discovery, I also wondered if we as Americans had come to value money so little that we were just dropping $20’s in the street without noticing. My walk home is quite lengthy, so I thought about America’s relationship with money and decided to do a little social experiment.

I decided to see how much money I could find on the ground in one calendar year by picking up all the pennies, nickels, and other stray change one occasionally sees on the street. Sort of a quirky New Year’s resolution! And maybe I’d even end up with enough money to do something fun at the end of the year!

I thought it would be much more interesting to keep track of the money I found on a spreadsheet rather than just throwing it in a jar (yes, it’s true…I’m a nerd at heart!). This would allow me to see what days were good for finding money, if one season was better than another, and any number of other random facts I could ascertain by studying the spreadsheet!

I never intended to collect money from anyone else…but one day I was going to lunch with my friend Illeny and got very excited about finding a penny en route to the restaurant. I told her about my spreadsheet and that I’d already found several dollars in change just walking back & forth to work. She thought this was funny and decided to play along! So a new column was born on the spreadsheet.

Since I have no shame about picking up pennies wherever I am, a few other friends soon found out about my experiment and although they mocked the idea of a spreadsheet, once they saw it…they wanted in too! One friend even forwarded the spreadsheet to her finance department and asked why they weren’t this organized?! They were intrigued and decided to weigh in by predicting the influx of tourists would cause a spike in found money over the summer months!

Pretty soon I had friends and family all over the country searching for pennies and sharing their stories (and their pennies) with me! Some people were inspired to write poetry about their pennies, others sent pictures when they found pennies in odd places. Eventually all of these stories found a home on a blog called “The Pretty Penny” for everyone to enjoy! It was obvious…people really liked finding pennies and putting them together for a bigger cause!

And so, “The Penny Project” was born with the goal of taking found money abandoned on the street and turning it into something great! To date we’ve raised over $112 (which isn’t too shabby considering most of our “donations” come from gutters and Metro bus floors). We’re working to grow our reserve fund so we can begin using the money to teach kids about financial literacy and charitable giving.

If you’re interested in more information or want to know how you can donate, e-mail us at the_pretty_penny@yahoo.com.