I hadn’t heard of the heads rule either. That’s a silly rule.
Does anyone else distribute good luck? When I have pennies, I often like to leave them in conspicuous areas for someone to come along and find. It only costs me one cent and someone else gets good luck - how cool is that?
Find a penny
Pick it up
Find 99 more
You’ll have a buck
I never heard any rhymes for pennies or pins, but I have heard people say that picking up a penny (heads up) is good luck. Of course, I also heard some of the same people say that stepping in dog shit is good luck, so there you go.
I’m another one in the pin camp. And I always just figured the luck part ran out soon after, being wasted on having the good luck to see the pin and pick it up before stepping on it and jabbing it through your big toe and bleeding all over your new socks.
So won’t your home soon be carpeted with fallen scissors? Seems to me that would be kind of dangerous.
Ike’s correct. But only because he’s old. Like me. 
:: mumbling:: Goddamn Cafe Society moderators think they know everything … grumble grumble …
I figure any rhyme my dad could actually be bothered to sing to me when I was a kid must be right-- and he never mentioned pins, or heads, or tails. Just cold hard cash in small denominations.
Where does this luck come from? Is it created from the discovery of the penny? Or is there some kind of conservation-of-luck law, and someone (likely the person who lost the penny) loses a day’s worth at the same time?
Urmmmmm, ya do know about Ike’s Voodoo Priest prowess, right? A Pinny found is a Pinny earned…
I always thought it was this:
Find a penny
Pick it up
And all day you’ll have
A shiny useless circle of metal
Until you dump it in the dish
On the table
Next to the garage door.
Have I really been missing out on gobs and gobs of easy luck?
Nah, you just have to get someone else to pick them up. It’s not bad luck for them, only for the person who dropped them.
I hadn’t heard that one, but I had heard it was good luck if a bird shits on you. :: shrug :: I still try to avoid either one.
The only other version of this rhyme I know that no one has mentioned is:
Find a penny/pick it up;/all day long,/you’ll have good luck.
Give that penny/to a friend/and your luck/will never end.
Nothing about heads and tails, though.
My mother (of NW PA descent) always told me
See a penny, pick it up
all the day you’ll have good luck.
See a penny, let it lay,
you’ll have bad luck all the day."
This left me with an irresistable compulsion to always pick up any goddam penny I saw. I was bitching about this to a co-worker one day, and he took this as an opportunity to drop a penny or two around my desk every time he saw me leave. It took me about a day to figure out what he was doing. When I finally did, I waited until he left his desk and threw about 15 pennies on the floor around his desk. We gleefully escalated this for a few days until the boss finally said "What the hell are all these friggin’ pennies doing on the floor?!?!
Good times…
Well, I always heard that a face-up penny means ol’ Abe is giving you “the evil eye” and you should leave it alone.
Quasi
Well, I obviously can’t just leave a penny there if I see one on the ground.
But…but…[[whiney voice]what if it’s on tails? I can’t pick it up or I’ll get bad luck. But…if I leave it on the ground, I’ll get bad luck! What…what can I do?[/whiney voice]
Can I maybe flip it over, then can I pick it up without risking bad luck?
And who came up with that whole heads=good luck, tails=bad luck thing, anyway? I personally like the bird better than some old dead president…oh wait…so that’s why I have bad luck!
Oh, sure. “Yeah, yeah, you pick them up–it’s not bad luck for you, honest! Um, listen, about that plane trip we’re taking together next week–do you mind if I take a separate flight?”