Pennies From Heaven

When I started walking the streets of Brooklyn on a daily basis for the U.S. Census Bureau back in February, I noticed as the snow began to melt in early spring, it was a common occurrence to find pennies shining up from the sidewalk—obviously dropped into a snow bank and forever displaced.

Or so I thought. As the temps continued to warm, I realized that a penny dropped is simply of little concern in today’s currency, where a cup of coffee takes some 200 of ‘em. In the mid-17th Century, mind you, “penny universities” sprang up across England, where folks gathered for a penny cup of coffee and conversation. Guess the common man would have leapt on a cent laying on the street today.It soon became a poor man’s sport for me to see how long it would take to gather 100 Lincolns, which I stored in a little bottle. Yesterday, I reached my goal. One hundred. Oh, what a feeling!

So let's see... it took about 24 weeks to garner $1. At this rate, I'll earn my first million dollars in 459,968.757 years. Or perhaps more realistically, I'll score a cup of java by Jan. 7, 2011. I better get busy.