REFLECTIONS
Next time you go to a cemetery, pay attention to any coins left near a military headstone.
A faithful Steele County Times reader and member of both the Blooming Prairie VFW and the BP American Legion, Vikki Wacek, called my attention to a longtime tradition of people laying coins on a headstone to pay respect to a veteran.
While flowers are the most common grave decoration, they aren’t the only way to pay tribute to those who passed.
Cultures and religious faiths worldwide have their own traditions that harken back for hundreds and even thousands of years.
In the Jewish faith, for instance, people leave stones. In Latin America, it’s common to leave candles. A tradition that developed from U.S. military culture is the leaving of coins on a headstone.
With Memorial Day coming up, here’s the story behind the story.
Collect some of the coins you have lying around. Take them to a cemetery nearby and lay them on a headstone.
A penny indicates a general visit, while a nickel, dime, or quarter signifies closer relationships, such as attending boot camp with the deceased, serving with them, or being present at their death, according to the Wounded Warrior Project.
A coin left on a headstone lets the deceased soldier’s family know that somebody stopped by to pay their respect. A penny means you visited.
A nickel means you and the deceased veteran trained at boot camp together.
A dime means you and the deceased veteran served together in some capacity.
A quarter is very significant because it means that you were there when that veteran died. The tradition of leaving coins on the headstones of military men and women can be traced to as far back as the Roman Empire.
Soldiers would insert a coin into the mouth of a fallen soldier to ensure they could cross the “River Styx” into the afterlife. In the U.S., 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.
What happens to the coins? They are collected from the gravesites monthly, and the money is used for cemetery maintenance, the cost of burial for soldiers, or the care for indigent soldiers.
If some coins are found at a headstone near you, take some time to note the type of service the soldier recorded.
Next week Vikki will share meaningful information on folding of the American flag at a military funeral.