Paul found his inheritance
in the garage
in a wheelbarrow.
A hundred and fifty
pounds or more of pennies
with the promise
some few of them
wore wheat and others
with designs that predated Lincoln.
Paul researched and returned the fact
that a hundred and forty-seven
copper pennies weighs one pound
while the modern zinc coins
require one hundred eighty-two
and that leaves
those three strange steel pennies
minted during World War Two
at one hundred and sixty-eight per pound.
A foot note stated
one hundred dollars of zinc pennies
weighs sixty-eight pounds
which places his inheritance
at less than three hundred dollars
from which he will have to subtract
the labor necessary
to sort and separate the pennies
by year and images
then roll the common modern coins
and research the rare ones
in case there is a jackpot winner.
Paul started salting Albuquerque neighborhoods
with heads-up pennies
for all who believed the superstition.
Find a penny, pick it up.
All day long you’ll have good luck.
copyright © 2021 Kenneth P. Gurney
Postscript
Liberty Cap is a type of penny minted in the late 1700s. Link to Liberty Cap on Wikipedia.
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