Friday Five: "Show Me the Money!"

It's Friday. I have a sermon to preach on Sunday. Bits of it are rattling around in my brain, each paragraph trying desperately to hook up with another in hopes of creating a coherent train of thought.

But in the meantime...I'm going to play Friday Five. And, in honor of Sunday's Gospel lesson with Jesus and the denarius (as one commentator wryly noted, wouldn't it have been funny if Jesus, after delivering the "Render unto..." advice, winked and pocketed the coin: "Gee -- thanks, guys!"), it's all about coins.


1) When was the last time you flipped a coin or even saw one flipped in person?
We actually did this at our house not all that long ago, but I can't remember why -- we were probably deciding where to eat dinner. ("Where do you want to eat?" "I dunno...where do you want to eat?" "I dunno....where do you want to eat?")

2) Do you have any foreign coins in your house? If so, where are they from?
Somewhere at The Cottage is an old Philippine coin, with a hole in the middle, that I think one of my uncles sent the family during World War II when he was stationed somewhere in the Pacific. And with Our Neighbor To the North just over yonder, there is certainly Canadian coinage all over the place, although I never notice it unless I attempt to put money in a newspaper kiosk.

3) A penny saved is a penny earned, they say. But let's get serious. Is there a special place in heaven for pennies, or do you think they'll find a special place in, well, the other place?
I came from a home where no penny was left behind...we used to have a big ol' pickle jar for pennies. I enjoy the modest "aha!" of adding up such change and enjoying a small windfall for myself and a favorite charity -- especially nowadays when you can schlep your piggy bank to the nearest supermarket and feed the change into the automatic coin counter. As for my thoughts and feelings about pennies specifically...I have to say, I really don't have many thoughts and feelings about pennies.

4) How much did you get from the tooth fairy when you were a child? and if you have children of your own, do they get coins, or paper money? (I hear there may be some inflation.)
I honestly don't remember. I think it was a quarter, a couple of times. My parents, who were older than most, did not seem to have a lot of stamina for maintaining childhood rituals like tooth-fairy largesse, putting up Christmas stockings, etc., from year to year. It was like, "Aren't you too old for the tooth fairy? [Sigh] How many years are you going to want to keep this up, anyway?"

5) Did anyone in your household collect the state quarters? And did anyone in your household manage to sustain the interest required to stick with it?
Nope.