Pennies from Heaven

My brother likes to tell the story of his pennies from heaven.  As he tells it, several times after our Dad died, he found pennies on the ground when he was feeling low.  Finding a penny may not sound like much, but to him it was a message from Dad.  The message was that everything would be okay.  This made my brother feel like Dad was still looking out for him.  How does he know these pennies are from Dad? 

They both collected wheat pennies as a hobby.  Wheat pennies were incidentally were last minted the year of his coming into this world.  (Coincidentally, the original movie and song “Pennies from Heaven” were released just the year before Dad was born.)  Although Lincoln/wheat pennies are not rare like the Indian head/wreath version, they are also not as commonly abundant in the current economy as the Lincoln reverse-sides of either  shield or memorial.  On the occasions where my brother found the pennies, he explained they were always wheat pennies.  This is not to say he never found a common penny or a commemorative  Lincoln bicentennial  penny, just that he always found a wheat version when he needed some assurance in his life.  It was like a little gift of love from Dad.

I found my brother’s story thought-provoking and inspirational.  Since my brother shared his story with me, I have also read many other inspirational “pennies from heaven” stories in magazines and on blogs.  Do you have a penny story you want to share?  Please feel free to do so in the comments of this blog post.