Author Topic: COINS LEFT ON TOMBSTONES  (Read 772 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline oldcoastie6468

  • Conservative Hero
  • ****
  • Posts: 2555
COINS LEFT ON TOMBSTONES
« on: October 26, 2013, 01:42:41 PM »
Received in an email. No link provided.

Quote
COINS LEFT ON TOMBSTONES

While visiting some cemeteries you may notice that headstones marking certain graves have coins on them, left by previous visitors to the grave.

These coins have distinct meanings when left on the headstones of those who gave their life while serving in America's military, and these meanings vary depending on the denomination of coin.

A coin left on a headstone or at the grave site is meant as a message to the deceased soldier's family that someone else has visited the grave to pay respect. Leaving a penny at the grave means simply that you visited.

A nickel indicates that you and the deceased trained at boot camp together, while a dime means you served with him in some capacity. By leaving a quarter at the grave, you are telling the family that you were with the solider when he was killed.

According to tradition, the money left at graves in national cemeteries and state veterans cemeteries is eventually collected, and the funds are put toward maintaining the cemetery or paying burial costs for indigent veterans.

In the US, this practice became common during the Vietnam war, due to the political divide in the country over the war; leaving a coin was seen as a more practical way to communicate that you had visited the grave than contacting the soldier's family, which could devolve into an uncomfortable argument over politics relating to the war.

Some Vietnam veterans would leave coins as a "down payment" to buy their fallen comrades a beer or play a hand of cards when they would finally be reunited.

The tradition of leaving coins on the headstones of military men and women can be traced to as far back as the Roman Empire.
U.S. Coast Guard veteran, 1964-1968

Will Rogers never met Barack Obama. He would not like Obama.

I hate liberals. Liberalism is a disease that causes severe brain damage after it tries to suck knowledge and history out of yours.

Offline AlanS

  • Conservative Superhero
  • *****
  • Posts: 7908
  • Proud Infidel
Re: COINS LEFT ON TOMBSTONES
« Reply #1 on: October 26, 2013, 05:37:14 PM »
Never heard that. Interesting.
"Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem."

Thomas Jefferson

Online Pandora

  • Administrator
  • Conservative Superhero
  • *****
  • Posts: 19529
  • I iz also makin a list. U on it pal.
Re: COINS LEFT ON TOMBSTONES
« Reply #2 on: October 26, 2013, 10:07:49 PM »
Poignant and heartbreaking.
"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." - Mark Twain

"Let us assume for the moment everything you say about me is true. That just makes your problem bigger, doesn't it?"

Offline Libertas

  • Conservative Superhero
  • *****
  • Posts: 63663
  • Alea iacta est! Libertatem aut mori!
Re: COINS LEFT ON TOMBSTONES
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2013, 05:05:57 PM »
A better updated version of Greeks placing coins on the eyes of their fallen to pay for passage to the afterlife.   ::thumbsup::
We are now where The Founders were when they faced despotism.