# Is it worth it to pick up a penny?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-it-to-pick-up-a-penny/654319>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [March 30, 2013, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-it-to-pick-up-a-penny/654319 "2013-03-30T01:50:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2013, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-it-to-pick-up-a-penny/654319/1 "2013-03-30T01:50:55Z")

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> **[Is it worth it to pick up a penny?](https://www.straightdope.com/21341481/is-it-worth-it-to-pick-up-a-penny)**

This one has bothered me for thirty years. Yes, he makes a good case for the monetary value of picking up a penny, but Cecil completely ignores the intangible way that picking up a single penny can improve your fortunes. After all,

> [@An Old Wife](#):
>
> Find a penny, pick it up. All day long, you’ll have good luck.

I know that some will object, saying that because it does not rhyme it cannot possibly be true, while others will claim that it is only true if the penny is found heads up, but this is a belief that goes back at least as far as my childhood, so I am invoking an _argumentum ad antiquitatem_ in support of its validity.

So why did Cecil ignore this ancient belief? If nothing else, it would stretch his response beyond the 85 words he wrote. Or did he write about it, but was censored by the penny pinchers at the _Яeader_? As a loyal reader who has let this stew for three decades before bothering to ask the question I demand an answer IMMEDIATELY! :mad:

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**Author:** ![Derc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@Derc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derc)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-it-to-pick-up-a-penny/654319/2 "2013-04-01T15:14:50Z")

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I once bent down to pick up a penny and a half bottle of whisky slipped from my inside pocket and smashed. If a Scots man drops a penny it usually hits him on the back of his neck.

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**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-it-to-pick-up-a-penny/654319/3 "2013-04-01T16:22:21Z")

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I always heard the saying as: “Find a penny, pick it up. All day long, you’ll have a penny.”

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-it-to-pick-up-a-penny/654319/4 "2013-04-02T00:21:12Z")

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Well, you can’t be a vagrant then because you have a visible means of support. “See, officer? I just found this penny and I expect to find another any day now.”

Wife had friends who lived near an unsupervised automatic toll booth in the sticks. When they were out of beer money they’d put a plastic cup in the throat of the toll machine and come back a few hours later to find it full of change.

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**Author:** ![\_Olive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/4af34b/32.png) [@\_Olive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Olive)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-it-to-pick-up-a-penny/654319/5 "2013-04-02T02:54:22Z")

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Find a penny, pick it up.  
Give to a friend, they’ll have good luck.

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**Author:** ![emcee2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emcee2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emcee2k)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-it-to-pick-up-a-penny/654319/6 "2013-04-02T08:09:06Z")

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Xkcd’s “What if” goes a bit more in-depth: [Cost of Pennies](http://what-if.xkcd.com/22/)

Unfortunately, it doesn’t address the luck based benefits either.

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**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-it-to-pick-up-a-penny/654319/7 "2013-04-02T08:53:23Z")

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Find a penny, what the fuck?  
Let some other, pick it up.