# Find a penny, Pick it up **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 29, 2002, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519 "2002-12-29T18:04:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/1 "2002-12-29T18:04:36Z")
Since my childhood, I’ve always heard the little rhyme : _Find a Penny Pick it up And all the day You’ll have good luck._ But then I’m about to do it the other day since I need all the luck I can get when my daughter says “Better look at it first. If it’s tails, you’ll have bad luck.” Now, I had never heard anything about this; nothing in the original poem says anything about there being any cessation of luck depending on whether the penny has landed on either heads or tails. It merely says _Find a Penny Pick it up And all the day You’ll have good luck._ Did I miss a memo somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![slowhand53](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@slowhand53](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowhand53)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/2 "2002-12-29T18:17:52Z")
i seem to remember the “heads up only” rule from when i was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/3 "2002-12-29T18:19:08Z")
I don’t remember hearing anything about the head’s up rule… I only remember the second part of the poem Find a penny Leave it lay You’ll have bad luck All the day ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/4 "2002-12-29T18:19:14Z")
I’ve never heard of the heads up version. ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/5 "2002-12-29T18:26:33Z")
I’ve heard of the heads-up rule. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/6 "2002-12-29T18:29:00Z")
You’re all crazy. I don’t know why I bother with you. The rhyme involves PINS, not pennies. \*See a pin and Pick it up, All the day You’ll have good luck. See a pin and Leave it lay, You’ll have bad luck All that day.\* It IS good luck to pick up a penny, especially heads up, but there’s no rhyme involved in it. ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/7 "2002-12-29T18:37:13Z")
Haven’t heard of any of this stuff, but I occasionally pick up coins. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/8 "2002-12-29T18:38:19Z")
I also heard of the heads up rule, however not until after my young childhood. I pick up a penny whenever I find one, they do add up. ---
**Author:** ![Rasa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rasa/32/3578_2.png) [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/9 "2002-12-29T18:38:39Z")
Yup, I’ve heard the “heads up only” rule. ---
**Author:** ![unclviny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e274bd/32.png) [@unclviny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclviny)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/10 "2002-12-29T18:49:01Z")
Find a penny Pick it up And all the day You’ll have to fuck (at least that’s the way I heard it) unclviny ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/11 "2002-12-29T18:49:40Z")
Yep, I’ve heard of the heads up rule too. If you pick up one that’s tails up, you’re meant to give it to somebody else as soon as you can. There’s a similar thing with pins as well; good luck to pick one up, but bad luck if it’s bent. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/12 "2002-12-29T18:50:28Z")
I’m the **Ukulele Ike** here. Definitely pins. Of course the opinions of all other mods / admins are also 100% correct. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/13 "2002-12-29T18:58:44Z")
I would pick it up no matter what side was facing up, in fact I pick up all change I see on the ground. (A friend and I want to get a metal detector, and we don’t have jobs.) ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/14 "2002-12-29T19:14:02Z")
I’m with mudshark. If I had Bill Gates’ money I’d still pick up any change lying around. It goes in the change jar every night and come July it’s wrapped up and cashed in. Generally comes to about $175 or so. ---
**Author:** ![Gazelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Gazelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazelle)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/15 "2002-12-29T19:32:17Z")
I thought it was See a penny Pick it up All day long You’ll have good luck ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/16 "2002-12-29T19:33:47Z")
I think Cecil needs to devote a few columns to this. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/17 "2002-12-29T19:34:38Z")
The heads up rule is real and serious. I always follow it. You have to keep in mind that the rhyme is only meant to paraphrase the actual rule. It is not the complete rule itself. I don’t want to get into all of the complexities and technicalities of found penny law, but it should suffice to say that your daughter is correct. Picking up a tails up penny is much worse than leaving the penny alone. There is some debate as to whether you can pick the tails up penny and quickly throw it until it lands heads but it is not clear whether this actually counts as a heads up found penny or if it is simply cheating. I have tried this strategy several times with mixed results so it is indeterminate at this time. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/18 "2002-12-29T19:45:07Z")
Here’s a possible connection to the heads-up/heads-down penny dichotomy, which just so happens to reinforce my “pin” claim. – from Vance Randolph’s _Ozark Magic and Folklore_ (Columbia University Press, 1947; reprinted Dover Publications, 1964): \*\*When you find a pin in the road, never fail to pick it up: See a pin, pick it up, All day long, good luck; See a pin, leave it lay; Have bad luck all day. Another view is that if the head of the pin is toward the finder he will have good luck, but if the point is toward him it means that he has a dangerous enemy to contend with.\*\* Nothing at all in the book about pennies – in the backcountry hills and hollers during the first half of the 20th century, you sure as heck picked up every loose penny you saw, luck or no luck – except the following: **Wearing a green penny in a sack round the neck is supposed to prevent ‘lung trouble’ – which usually means tuberculosis.** ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/19 "2002-12-29T19:54:10Z")
You’re ALL wrong. This is the REAL version: Find a penny, Pick it up, If it’s heads you’ll have good luck. If it’s tails, You will die, You might even start to cry. Sheesh, I thought _everyone_ knew that. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Pebs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Johnny\_Pebs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Pebs)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2002, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519/20 "2002-12-29T20:22:51Z")
I’ve always heard the head’s up rule too, but I lost all faith in that when I was in high school. We were out at football practice when I saw a penny on the ground head’s up. “Ooh, good luck!” thought I. I picked it up and having no pockets on my uniform, put it in my shoe. A few plays later, I stood my opponent up, saw the ball carrier and shuffled down the line to plug the hole and make a tackle. The guy next to me had a little more trouble with his counter part and was knocked down. At about the same time, the ball carrier saw me coming down the line and lowered his head anticipating the impact. Unfortunately the only thing that made it into the hole to block his way was my arm which the top of his helmet hit just below the elbow. I had no idea that dislocations were so loud. :eek: I was telling a verrrry superstitious friend about this a few years later when he chided me for picking up a tail’s up penny. His response was “imagine what would have happened if you didn’t have the _good_ luck from that penny”. :rolleyes: Pebs [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-a-penny-pick-it-up/145519.md?page=2)