Some people can’t resist taking in stray kittens or lost puppies. I have a weakness for pennies.

"See a penny pick it up, all day long
you’ll have good luck."
"A penny saved is a penny earned."
"Pennies from heaven." (Ouch.)
"Penny for your thoughts."

There are all sorts of sayings in our culture about pennies. None of these quite explain why I care so much about them, or the other coins that come my way in parking lots and on sidewalks, on roadsides and in fancy restaurants. I’m not superstitious or frugal or compulsive. I guess I’m just . . . practical. If someone is going to throw money in my path, I’ll take it, no matter what the denomination.

The irony is that I’m as careless as the next person with my loose change. If I’m hurrying into the grocery store at 5 p.m. and a penny drops from my pocket as I pull out my list, I probably won’t bother to slow down and backtrack. In fact, I’d be much more likely to stop and pick up a tissue or piece of crumpled paper because everyone hates to be labeled a little bug.

Dropping a penny--or even a nickel or dime--isn’t any big deal to most us. Let’s face it, these coins have very little purchasing power. Even children don’t usually put one in their pockets and think, "Gee, what can I buy with this?" Most gumball and goodie-dispensing machines are quarters only nowadays, and pay phones are a quarter or more. I recently needed to use one but didn’t have correct change. I had one dime, one nickel and a handful of pennies. When I asked a nearby woman for change, she gave me the dime and refused the pennies. They weren’t worth her trouble.

Lots of stores now put "give a penny, take a penny" containers at their registers. How much more worthless can a piece of money be when people would rather give it away than make change with it? It’s another symptom, I suppose, of our rush and hurry society, but one that makes me wonder how much longer we’ll have pennies around. Just think how much simpler things would be if all financial transactions were rounded to the nearest nickel!

Some people think that in the not-too-distance-future, money will cease to change hands at all, at least in the physical sense. We will do all buying and selling through debit cards. Already, most of us never see the money we earn, as it goes from direct deposit to checking account to creditors without us touching any paper money or coins at all. With e-commerce gaining in popularity, it seems that just about anything can be purchased without any actual money at all. A move to an all-digital economy seems inevitable.

Then again, remember when it was predicted that computers would herald a "paperless" society?

I think most of us would like coin money more if we didn’t have to figure out what to do with them at home. Most men routinely empty their change from their pockets at the end of the day then get up the next day to start the collection process all over. Women are not necessarily as regular about it, but when the jingling mess at the bottom of the purse outweighs the rest of the contents, it’s time to make room for more.

A few nickels, several dimes and a handful of pennies seem so harmless until you try to add them up, day after day after. Nearly every family I know has a designated change container to try and keep things under control. For some it’s a cute little wooden bank, perhaps shaped like a golf bag or music note, depending on your hobby. For others it’s an extra large basket, cup, glass or pitcher. We have two baskets, one for silver and one for pennies.

What ever you use, eventually the container will be full and you have to decide: do I put it in something larger, or is it time to trade it in? Trading it in usually involves spilling it all out on a table then hunkering down with wrappers to count and roll it. Some people in my husband’s family actually enjoy this process. For them it’s a social time to sit and chat. I’d sooner sit around and write, "A penny saved is a penny earned," a thousand times!

A couple years I go I discovered a neat change counting machine at a local supermarket. This time-saving machine called CoinStar takes your change and sorts it for you in minutes. A monitor shows how many of each denomination is being counted while a coin return slot at the base spits out any rejects. In the end you get a paper receipt that shows how much of each coin went through and the total due. Bring the slip to the service desk and you walk away with money that actually fits into your wallet without giving you muscle strain. So much easier than taking hours to count and roll, count and roll.

Of course, this transaction isn’t free. The machine deducts a 7% handling charge so if I cash in $30, I’ll lose $2.10. Those 210 pennies are almost enough of a bite to make me grab some penny wrappers and start counting with my relatives. Almost.

Like most of you, when I’m walking along the street and find a penny, I don’t even think about it anymore. I lean down and pick it up. I put it in my pocket and bring it home to join my collection. The penny doesn’t cares much about whether it stays on the ground or goes in my pile, but for some reason, it means a lot to me.

Pennies lost, pennies found,
Pennies in piles big and round.
A penny for you, a penny from me,
Pennies forgotten in the street

See a penny, pick it up
May it bring you lots of luck
Pennies aren’t from heaven, my dear
But finding one can bring cheer.