Throwing Copper

 Heading up to the top of the hill on my first morning back to school, I stopped my bike to pick up a penny. Then another. And in my head, I thought, "Well, it's got to be a good day because I've found two pennies." Which caused me to consider all the time I have spend picking spare change up from the street or sidewalks on my way to or from here and there. 

It will not fund my retirement, but there is a considerable chunk of change sitting in a jar on my wife's desk, and even more rolls of coins that have been processed and are awaiting some future crisis when we "don't have any money." 

Yes we do. It's just rolled up in neat paper packages, stacked in groups of fifty, primarily. Except for those darn nickels. So thick and so smooth, alas you can only get forty of those bad boys into a roll. 

But where does all these bits and pieces of semiprecious metal come from? I used to believe that I was encountering the sprinkled contents of someone's pockets, absently dropped there while taking keys out to unlock the car door. No time to stoop down and pick up those stray pennies. I've got places to go.

Which is fine with me. I will happily scoop them up and add them to my bank back home. But maybe there is some more sinister work afoot? What if those were the bits of change that were in someone's wallet or purse, discarded not only for their relative uselessness, but also evidence of such a theft. "Exactly how much money did they take? Forty-seven dollars and twenty-nine cents? This guy has twenty-nine cents in his pocket. I think we've got our suspect."

Then there's the part where I imagine how they must be connected to sideshow activity. I often find pennies and dimes that have been run over multiple times, and I believe that there must be some cool thing about squealing tires over coins that adds some level of danger to what is already a ridiculous affair. Peeling out and spraying a few cents worth into the onlooking crowd seems like a pretty petty display considering the amount of money they're spending on the tires they will have to replace after all is said and done. 

Or maybe it doesn't matter in the least. This is the money I get for taking a few extra seconds for leaning down and picking them up. Two cents richer? How lucky can one guy be?