The Lucky Abes

Sometimes kids collect things. Beany babies, buttons, shoe strings. I must say I collected a lot of things when I was young. In fact, I still own my rock collection (it is one of the few things I have to display on the shelves of my basically bare apartment). My favorite collection, however, has always been my lucky penny collection. Or, as I like to call it, my Lucky Abes.It's called the "Lucky Abes" because Abraham Lincoln's face is on the American penny (I'm hoping that was obvious but I spelled it out if anyone was day dreaming).

A lucky penny is something I’m quite obsessed with.

I have a lucky penny collection that ranges from 1945-2007. I like to clean this collection biannually with Tabasco sauce. In fact, when organizing the kitchen pantry this summer I found five bottles of Tabasco sauce, all which are only used to beautify my precious pennies. I stumbled upon my most prized lucky penny (from 1945) while skydiving from Mt. Kilimanjaro one day. Just kidding, ignore the slight addendum, I actually found the penny in my wallet, which is kind of lame.

There have been moments where my lucky pennies were at risk (like the time my parents tried to add it to their Coinstar trip to Kroger). Now, to keep them safe, I have them in my bedside drawer...not my desk at home. There aren't many symbols of luck that aren't Irish. This is what makes the penny so unique and cool! I wonder if the coins for 1 cent in other countries are considered lucky when found on the ground. If I was a symbol of luck (like Lincoln is) I would make sure people knew that by spending me they were living life on luck. I wonder how he would feel if he knew he symbolized luck to children throughout the US (or at least lucky pennies are big in Ohio!)

Too often pennies are not considered important! For example, many stores price items at $5.99 or $9.99 (this is a type of heuristic) and customers end up with a penny as their change. Often these customers just ask the sales clerk to keep the change! I, however, love to keep my pennies. Sometimes I drop them by parks where I imagine other collecting-kids find them (and it's the highlight of their day!).

Well I started blogging about this because I realized the Lucky Abes are probably in need of a good clean. Now where's that Tabasco sauce...