Half a Dollar Conundrum ????

Philosophy question...(a conundrum actually)

One day as a pre-teen I was walking across a parking lot of a restaurant with my father, a friend of his, Frank, who was a very (very) wealthy Italian business owner and two of his brothers. One of the brothers had just paid for dinner and was examining the change he had in his hand. Among this change were three pennies. The brother tossed the pennies from his hand onto the ground and put the rest in his pocket. The eldest brother (the friend of my father) stopped cold in his tracks upon witnessing this. He instantly turned and physically assaulted his brother, and I mean "assaulted" as in...beat the snot out of him!

After Frank had thrown his brother to the ground he walked over and picked up those three pennies. He then turned to his brother and angrily shouted..."YOU NEVER, EVER, THROW MONEY AWAY...YOU HEAR ME??? NEVER!! NO MATTER HOW SMALL!! AND IF I EVER SEE YOU DO THAT AGAIN YOU WILL BE UNKNOWN TO ME...DO...YOU...HEAR...ME????" Frank was dead serious too, and his brother knew it. Frank had just told him he would be formally "disowned" if he ever saw him do this again. Wow!!

Talk about getting jerked out of a daydream back into reality! One minute I was happily walking across a parking lot and the next minute I was witnessing a fury of anger and shouting...all over three copper pennies!

Needless to say, that moment had a great and lasting impact on me. It suddenly made sense. Those three pennies, added to (97) others equaled a dollar, and 5 dollars led to 10...and 10 led to thousands and on and on to private jets and houses on championship golf courses around the country, all things Frank had earned in his life.

Those three pennies meant something...they meant everything! They were the foundation, and they were every bit as valuable as the millions of dollars this man had worked so hard to earn.

As we walked to the car Frank noticed another penny on the ground and leaned over to pick it up. He picked it up and held it up between his fingers and sharply turned around to his brother who was behind us in shame...YOU SEE?? EVERY SINGLE PENNY!!...Frank said to him, reinforcing his point. He then called his brother a 'dumb (insert Italian racial slur which I won't repeat here)'. He was really pissed about this.

So where is this story headed? What's the conundrum, you ask?

Fast forward about 35 years. One day I was cleaning my office, and I found a half of a dollar. Not $0.50 cents, but literally a "half" of a dollar bill. It was a dollar bill which must have been folded in half and then half of it was torn away somehow. I looked around for the other half...well...I've looked around for the other half...for the past 12 years.

Beside my desk sits a pen holder which I keep some of my nice pens in. I needed a pen to sign something this morning so I pulled out one of the pens, and with it came this torn dollar bill. I wondered to myself why I've kept this dollar bill all these years. Then I thought of Frank. I thought about Frank...and those 3 pennies. Frank was the reason I still have that torn dollar bill.

I wished for a moment that Frank was still around, so I could ask him...if a dollar bill torn exactly in half was worth more, or less, than those three pennies that day. Just to be sure, I put the torn bill back in my pen holder.

I still don't have the heart to get rid of that torn dollar bill...and whenever I see a penny lying on the ground I pick it up and put it in my pocket.

I'll probably never have the heart to get rid of that dollar bill, and someday, after I am gone, someone will be going through all my things deciding what to do with them. I wonder if they will have the benefit of the wisdom I learned that day...about 3 simple pennies.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Well, that half a note means a heck of a lot for you.

It has a greater value to you than the mere monetary amount.

If you take it to a bank ... would they give you 50c.

Even if they would, you would not do it.

It has a personal value.

P

a reply to: pheonix358

Oh, I don't know if the torn bill has that much value to me. Certainly not as much value as the experience with the three pennies and Frank did.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

S+F, nice read.

"A penny with the tails side up should be turned over for another person to find. On the other hand, many people believe any penny you find is good luck. You may hear people repeat a common rhyme to this effect: "Find a penny, pick it up. All day long, you'll have good luck.""

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

It's well known that a lot of millionaires or super rich are psychopaths. It looks like you saw that first hand at an early age.

I would have thrown the rest of the change on the ground, gave a middle finger and walked off. Any family member that would disown you over throwing pennies on the ground wasn't family in the first place.

a reply to: underwerks

Well, I guess that's one opinion.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Good thread FCD....metaphorically speaking? "A penny saved is a penny earned"...and I remember 1 (maybe a couple") Halloweens when here in the "D"...folks were passing out pennies as well as or instead of candy.

Kids all cute and scary...held their bags open watching them drop inside. 1 asked "Whats this for?"...following with an aside to another kid... "Forget that house. They are only giving out money"!

Another instance was a panhandler on the street with the common "Homeless...help please...etc etc" handmade sign.

Someone saw him, went for fast food..'couple sandwiches, fries, soda, dessert...and took it back to the man so he could eat...

He took the bag, looked inside and said "What the hell is this? What am I supposed to do with this!?"

The half-torn $ you found later was a metaphor itself. Glass half empty, glass half full. He who has 1/2 of something...has more than he who has nothing.

Now, it's you, finding the other 1/2...and smart enough to go looking for the scotchtape to put the 2 into 1 again....

Have a great day, best, MS

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

The moral of the story that I got from it is never throw away anything valuable.


But, I'm a pack rat anyway...

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
When you say "half"- is that "nearly" or "just over"?
I don't know about the American system- but my understanding is that the Bank of England will give full value for a mutilated British note if more than half the original note (and a complete serial number) is available. Obviously that proviso makes it impossible for the claim to be made twice. Worth a try?

originally posted by: InTheLight
"A penny with the tails side up should be turned over for another person to find. On the other hand, many people believe any penny you find is good luck. You may hear people repeat a common rhyme to this effect: "Find a penny, pick it up. All day long, you'll have good luck.""

That's because you become more perceptive and open to finding stuff during the day. Back then, whenever the phrase started, a penny would've been worth maybe a dime today. 5 cents could get you some pretty decent stuff in say, 1800.

So if you found a quarter, but usually it's a dollar of some kind in today's world, it has the same effect. You might even start looking at good deals for once like the best item on a 99 cent menu fast food, instead of wasting money on the super deluxe sandwich that you also notice via the 99 sandwich, is a rip off. Yeah, it's good, but is it $5 good when I could have 5 of these instead. These taste good and I like having 5 instead of 1 sandwich, it gets me fuller. Hmm..

What luck to discover such an enlightening experience out of necessity from being broke and having found a dollar while hungry. It's a priceless lesson that you'd always remember and utilize.

a reply to: dfnj2015
Didn't they change their minds?

originally posted by: r0xor

originally posted by: InTheLight
"A penny with the tails side up should be turned over for another person to find. On the other hand, many people believe any penny you find is good luck. You may hear people repeat a common rhyme to this effect: "Find a penny, pick it up. All day long, you'll have good luck.""

That's because you become more perceptive and open to finding stuff during the day. Back then, whenever the phrase started, a penny would've been worth maybe a dime today. 5 cents could get you some pretty decent stuff in say, 1800.

So if you found a quarter, but usually it's a dollar of some kind in today's world, it has the same effect. You might even start looking at good deals for once like the best item on a 99 cent menu fast food, instead of wasting money on the super deluxe sandwich that you also notice via the 99 sandwich, is a rip off. Yeah, it's good, but is it $5 good when I could have 5 of these instead. These taste good and I like having 5 instead of 1 sandwich, it gets me fuller. Hmm..

What luck to discover such an enlightening experience out of necessity from being broke and having found a dollar while hungry. It's a priceless lesson that you'd always remember and utilize.

So true. As children, we would put double bubble gum on a stick and collect money from the inside of road sewer grates then go and buy treats - we would always be on the lookout for money. Some kids found $10 bills blowing in the wind.

I always enjoyed picking up pennies and dreaming that I would have good luck all day. Then sometimes I would throw the penny back on the ground later in the day for someone else to pick up so they too could have good luck. I just never knew the 'heads up' position was the right position for the magic to happen. I stopped picking up pennies once I became an adult - gotta conform and lose the magic.