Hey everybody, welcome back to the sanctuary.
So Memorial Day is right around the corner and it brought something to mind that really
strikes home for me as a veteran.
This is something a lot of people always have questions about, so I'm going to do my best
to shed some light and impart some knowledge.
Now by now, I'm sure some of you are wondering what I'm rambling on about.
I'm talking about coins.
Specifically, I'm talking about coins that you will likely find on hit stones and other
grave markers of deceased military veterans and sometimes other people.
Now to begin with, I do want to point out that this practice is not biblical.
Depending on what you read, this practice is often considered to be traced back to old
Roman or Greek culture, but the origins are ultimately unknown.
And the practice is often associated with those pagan practices of placing coins on
the eyes of the deceased.
However, that connection is also inconclusive.
Now with that said, there are some things to know about how this practice is done today
and I bring it up because it can cause a bit of trouble if the wrong person thinks you're
dishonoring the dead.
And because this is also one area, you know, when you're looking at death, people get emotionally
carried away and they don't always think about things the way that they should and they don't
always approach things the way that they should.
In addition to that, like I said, Memorial Day is right around the corner and as we all
know, a lot of alcohol is consumed during this holiday.
With that said, let's go in and I'm going to tell you what exactly these coins are and
what happens with them as well.
So as you'll find, there actually is at the end of all this, a good purpose that they
go towards.
All right.
So the most common coins you're going to find are pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
We're going to go into each one accordingly and then I'll go into a couple of other things
that you may find as well.
So of course, first off is the penny.
A penny simply means that someone came by and paid their respects.
They don't need to have any kind of actual relationship with the deceased.
It's merely a token to show that they stopped by.
This can be anyone and it's done as a sign of respect.
Next up is the nickel.
Now this is where things are starting to get a little more intimate.
A nickel means that the person who visited went to training with the deceased.
Now depending on what branch of service the person was in, you're looking at boot camp
or basic training, whichever.
It could even be by some considered to be the occupational school, the school that they
went to for what their job was going to be in the military or like as the army has it,
that sort of stuff, any of these kinds of schools.
And let's face it, training is a very tender time.
For most, it's the first time they've actually left home.
And it's not like they just get to leave and go back to it at the end of the day.
They're there.
So add to that the stressors of training and the environment itself.
You find new lifelong friends and extended family.
On top of that, they're learning the basic skills needed to serve their country within
a specific job.
A lot of veterans, myself included, this is where you make some of your lifelong friends.
I still talk to people I went to boot camp with to this day.
Now the next coin up here that we're going to talk about, the next token is the dime.
This is going to be the most common token that you'll find.
A dime shows that the person who stopped by actually served with the deceased.
Now this may be the same unit, duty station, a joint operation, et cetera, et cetera.
Don't think that this is just limited to a branch of service either.
In addition to different units working together, sister services work together regularly as
well.
A great example of this would be Navy corpsmen serving in the Marine Corps.
This happens every day because the Marine Corps doesn't have its own medical service.
During my time in the Corps, I actually spent a brief time working with the Air Force.
So these things happen all the time.
Because of that, you might actually be surprised to learn of all the people a service member
had the opportunity to work with and befriend.
Next up is going to be the least common coin.
But it's one that pulls at the heartstrings of people the hardest, the quarter.
A quarter shows that the person who stopped by was actually with the deceased when they
died.
So as you can imagine, this is one of the hardest because nobody witnesses death and
goes unmarked.
This is something that carries on with you until it's your time to pass.
It doesn't matter if it was in times of conflict or times of peace.
Death is a very distinct experience.
And especially when it's somebody you cared about and you loved, it changes things.
Now with that said, there are a couple of other types of coins that you may or may not
come across.
I'll go into these things individually as well.
After that, I have something else of merit that you may find of interest as well.
So the first of which I'm sure some of you have already guessed at, and it's probably
because you're a veteran or you've worked with veterans or some kind of first response
service and this is the challenge coin.
Now while they don't have a monetary value as far as like spending it or anything like
that, what they represent to others is often considered to be a more value.
You see, they show that the coin bearer belongs to a certain unit or participated in certain
actions.
Yes, some people pay to collect them, but many of them, the ones that truly have the
most value, they can't be purchased.
And they're not just going to be given out, they're earned.
When you're first attached to a unit, it's not common practice to just walk in the door
and just be like, hey, I'm so and so, and they just, hey, welcome aboard, and they hand
you a coin.
It doesn't work that way.
Instead, you work, you go to work, you do the things you're supposed to, you earn your
way in, you get to know people, and you're not just an assigned body, but you become
part of that family, a part of that unit.
And like I said, certain actions as well, because even those, certain people are limited,
so it's a very small group, it's very niche, it's a good identifier.
So these are very prized trinkets, they're very coveted.
Even outside of the military, you'd be able to find very specific coins representing very
specific groups, especially in first response, firefighters, police, EMTs, dispatchers, and
various others.
So when you find one at a grave site, it is very likely that it was left by another brother
or sister in arms.
Okay?
Now the next is not a common sight here in the US, especially the further you move inland
and away from the coast, and that would be foreign currency.
Believe it or not, yes, foreign currency.
Not only is it a good sign, or I should say great sign of respect to find it, but even
more so when it's placed and it also has a local currency left with it, kind of side
by side, and it's easy to identify that they were meant to be placed together.
It is a great sign of respect.
What's more, I should say this is more common at grave sites that are overseas, especially
places like in Europe.
Occasionally you'll see this elsewhere, but you think of the graveyards and everything
after World War II or even World War I.
They're in France and other places.
If you're wondering why this would happen today, especially with foreigners, keep in
mind all branches of service, they do joint training and joint operations with other countries
where they're also going to make friends.
So on top of that, while we work in the military, we work with people from other countries regularly
as well.
Translators, secretaries, transportations, various logistics, the list goes on and on.
We work with a lot of different people.
Even civilians, security corporations.
My time in Japan, we had local nationals that worked security at the gate along with camp
guard and the MPs and everything.
We love them.
They're great people.
So you do meet a lot of people and get to work with a lot of really cool people that
way as well.
So going on, before I go into what all happens with these coins, let me go into something
that may really be surprising for a lot of people.
These things don't always happen on military grave markers.
You may be surprised to see these things on civilian markers as well.
It's actually happening more and more often and with similar parallels.
The penny showing that someone stopped by to pay respect and nickel representing that
they went to school together.
This could even be college or trade school.
A dime indicated that they worked together at some capacity in life and a quarter showing
that they were with the person when they died.
If you're wondering why that's what's happening, I could think of several people that have
worked in law enforcement and EMS, fire, nurses, especially in emergency rooms that maybe a
particular death just hit them really hard where they did everything they could.
It was their time.
The Lord said, no, that's it and called them on.
So civilians do go out and they do participate in this as well.
So don't think that you can't leave some kind of trinket or anything if you didn't serve.
Yes, you can.
I'm speaking from the standpoint of a veteran here and all as well, not the pastor side.
Like I said, we've already covered that.
We know what's up.
Now we're just going into the practice.
Now here at this point, this is where I'm going to tell you what happens to these coins
and I'll implore you, please, please, please leave them alone.
If you have kids or other people with you who don't know what's going on with these,
please educate them and get them to leave the coins as well.
Now if you go somewhere and a marker needs to be tidied up or anything and you see you
moving for that, that's fine, please do clean that marker and everything, but then put the
coins right back when you're done.
So what happens is there are workers or volunteers at various cemeteries and grave sites who
do go around and they do gather up all these coins periodically.
These go into a fund to help with the needs of the graveyard such as maintenance and grounds
keeping, in some cases even to help pay for the burial of other veterans or indigent persons
as well who maybe don't have anybody else there with funds or anything or other various
veteran services, that sort of stuff.
So most of the people who leave these coins and these trinkets, they know that this is
what these funds are going to be used for.
And let's face it, with the exception of the time that we spend at these sites ourselves,
they're mostly forgotten about and they can truly use any financial assistance that they
get.
So again, with that said, please leave the coins and leave the trinkets that you find
because these things, they can't actually go on to bless somebody else or another family
that's struggling and just those funds do add up.
A penny here, a penny there, a dime here, a dime there, just like in your own life when
you're trying to save.
Every little coin that you get eventually it all builds up and it can go to something
good and that's what happens here.
So I pray that this has been informative and that it helps you or someone that you know
to better understand the meaning not only behind the coins but what it means to those
who leave them and who it can possibly go to bless.
So I'll catch you next time.
God bless.
Take care.