why do people throw pennies into wells?

here's a blog entry on pennies that i found. it is interesting, particularly the 4 theories posited as to why people throw pennies...

this if from:
http://www.jazzydoc.com/CommunityServer/blogs/heretotheretour/archive/2006/11/07/44.aspx

Pennies

Updated mileage: Bike 239 miles Hike 138 miles Run 141 miles Drive 19020

Pennies

The sign on the railing above Plymouth Rock said "Do Not Throw Pennies Onto Plymouth Rock". It would not have occurred to me that a prohibition against penny-throwing was necessary, but as I looked over the railing I saw at least a dozen coins scattered around this national landmark.

First a word about Plymouth Rock. The storied landing place of the Mayflower Pilgrims was less than impressive. The Rock itself was smaller than a parlour loveseat and sits half-buried in the sand at the harbour in Plymouth, Massachussets. On the surface of this otherwise nondescript rock was the date "1620". Expecting a boulder of mythic proportions, its physical size was disappointing. The Rock’s history was even more sorry. Apparently nobody had worried about where Capt. John Smith's boot first touched earth in his new home until 120 years later, when some citizen pointed to this lump of stone and proclaimed that it was the very spot where the Mayflower passengers disembarked. After another 100 years they decided to move it to a safer spot downtown, but the rock broke in half when they tried to pull it out of the sand. Leaving one half stuck in the sand, they took the other half down to city hall where it languished for another 50 years. Then it was moved to a different location in town. Sometime in the 1900s the town decided to take it back to the beach, where they glued it back onto the half that was still buried in the sand, surrounding it with a fence and a stern admonition against the throwing of currency,

On our travels, we have seen pennies thrown onto and into a variety of public memorials. Nearly every fountain in a city park or civic plaza has coins sparkling under the water. The grand semicircular pools with arching water jets that flank the entrance to the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock have an impressive collection of pennies in them. On the Battle Green in Lexington, Kentucky stands a marble monument commemorating the British attack on the Minutemen. The 12 foot spire of marble was placed in 1790 and is somewhat worse for wear, so a wrought-iron fence now surrounds it for protection. Pennies are strewn everywhere around the base of the stone memorial, and several pennies sit perched on the narrow rim of the monument's pedestal. Paul Revere's grave in Boston was surrounded with an iron fence and a small fortune in pocket change. Paul was a master metalsmith and might have wondered "who took the copper out of the penny?" In Philadelphia we had to pay a couple of dollars to enter the graveyard where Benjamin Franklin was buried. His grave was also covered in pennies, and you could almost hear the Poor Richard warning that "a penny saved is a penny earned"; he would certainly frown on the waste of a good coin. In Mystic, Connecticut we walked thru an historical replica of the old whaling town. You could walk into most of the old shops, but the bank had iron bars across the open door. Inside, just a penny's throw away, sat the bank's vault, door invitingly open. Hundreds of pennies had been tossed into and around the vault, where they looked perfectly at home.

My first contact with this phenomenon of throwing pennies into inaccessible public receptacles was when I was an impressionable five-year-old. Children's Hospital had a "Wishing Well" where children could make a wish and throw a penny into the well. I was always a little confused about this: Clearly the money went to the hospital, helping needy children get well. What I couldn't figure out was whether you had to use your wish for the unfortunate sick children, or whether they could have your money but you could wish for something for yourself, sort of a win-win situation. And what if you threw in a nickel? Did you get five wishes, or one really big wish? These are the ethical dilemmas that trouble a kindergartener. But I loved to throw that little copper coin into the well.

Why do people have this desire to throw pennies into fountains, ponds, and small fenced enclosures of all sorts? I have a number of possible theories:

1. People like to donate to the public institutions represented by the fountain or monument. Certainly the caretakers rake up the coins regularly, and in some small way this might help with the upkeep of public areas.

2. People are fascinated by inaccessibility. You can see the bottom of the pool or the fenced-off gravestone, but you can't get to it. Adding small change enhances this effect--the money is there, just out of reach, Like real life.

3. Children and men enjoy the challenge of target practice. In many cases the pennies are clearly aimed for the smallest, most difficult areas, reminiscent of the old game of pitching pennies. In this child's gambling game, each player tosses a penny as near the wall as possible without actually hitting the wall, If the next player can get his penny closer, he gets to keep his opponent’s money. Some people just can't resist a challenge.

4. My own favorite theory is that throwing pennies is a way of making contact with a person, event, or object of beauty that is otherwise out of reach. Tossing a penny onto Paul Revere's gravestone somehow transports the person back 230 years to the year of the glorious ride, a way of participating in a tiny way with history.



This last theory leads me to relate an interesting twist on the penny theme. At Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts visitors can walk a mile along the lake to the spot where Henry David Thoreau lived in a rough cabin in the woods for two years as an experiment in living as simply as possible. This experience is chronicled in his famous book, Walden. This book has had a profound philosophical and spiritual effect on many generations, but particularly those children of the 1960s who questioned the values of our materialistic society. Next to the site where Henry's cabin had been there is a large pile of small stones. For over 100 years visitors to the cabin site have added their own rocks to the pile, as a way of "touching" the life and ideas of Henry David Thoreau. Pennies would not have seemed an appropriate remembrance for this man who cared little for money but cared a lot for nature. I have added my own stone to this collection on three separate occasions, including our recent visit last month. At the nearby Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where Henry is buried near his friends Emerson, Alcott, and Hawthorne, a 10 inch tall headstone simply says "Henry". When we visited his grave, a row of 5 pebbles sat on top of his grave marker; some kindred spirit just wanted to say "hi".

Finally, our travels took us to the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama. The park across the street was the scene of the notorious incident where police released attack dogs on a march of black children, and on the next corner stands the 16th Street Baptist Church, which still bears the scars of the bombing that killed 4 little girls during Sunday School. In the Civil Rights Institute was an excellent and very detailed exhibit that tells the story of the civil rights movement. Near the end of the series of exhibits is a re-creation of Martin Luther King’s jail cell. You stand on the outside of the bars looking into the prison cell, a very realistic and chilling view. The stark cot in the room is made up with clean white sheets. On the bed is a scattering of pennies, along with dozens of nickels and dimes, and at least a hundred quarters. Visitors clearly wanted to reach thru the bars to touch this difficult part of our history, but pennies were not enough to reflect the terrible price paid by the courageous heroes of the struggle for civil rights.