What happens to coins on military headstones?

Coins have long been used to honor fallen warriors. In ancient Greece, it was customary to leave coins either on the eyes or in the mouths of the precipitate. It was said that the spirits of the deceased would use these coins to pay Charon the Ferryman to carry their soul across the River Styx and into the afterlife. many other cultures have taken on some variation of this custom — and they ’ ve persisted. Today, many people still leave coins on military headstones, and on the headstones of early dearly departed love ones .
While it ’ s not entirely a military tradition, this is park at the resting places of fallen troops. But the thoughtfully place coins can ’ t just be left to pile up indefinitely — and the fallen preceptor ’ t have much use for them. finally, person has to collect these coins and put them to effective use .
so, what happens ?
Now, I can’t say for certain that the grave of “Texas Jack” Omohundro wasn’t visited by 27 people who were there when he was killed over 130 years ago, but if it was, he must’ve had a lot of vampire friends. (Photo by Peter Greenburg) There ’ s an often-shared chain electronic mail that suggests that the type of coins on military headstones lend unlike meanings — a classify of hide message left to be interpreted by other veterans who visit the sculpt. A penny is used to merely honor the dead, a nickel means you went to boot camp or basic educate with the fall, a dime bag means you served with them in some capacity, and a quarter means you were there when they died.

This multi-coin theory is suspect at best. The beginning documentation of such a tradition is only ampere honest-to-god as 2009, and you ’ ll often find nickels, dimes, and quarters on gravestones from World War I and earlier — which merely doesn ’ t make physical sense. still, this theme has been spread around enough that it carries at least some degree of meaning.

One fallen veteran’s coins being used to honor another veteran’s life is a noble act.
(American Battle Monuments Commission) When besides many coins pile up at a gravesite, a caretaker collects the money and puts it in a separate investment company to help pay for cemetery sustenance. The coins are put towards things like washing graves, mowing the lawn, and killing annoying weeds if the state or local government doesn ’ metric ton already allocate funds for such things.

The same fund besides contributes toward the burying of an destitute veteran who can not otherwise pay for the process. The VA and other charitable funds may help cover some of the costs, but if the veteran ( or the veteran ’ s estate ) still can not afford the deviation, the coins left on the graves of their brothers- and sisters-in-arms will help .
What? You didn’t think it was odd that were so many perfectly sized rocks just feet away from nearly every grave?
(U.S. Army photo by Rachel Larue)
  While coins are most common — most people reading this article credibly have a spare coin sitting in their pocket right now — early mementos are besides placed on veterans ’ graves .
In closely every sheath, caretakers will remove these tokens in order to keep the area in pristine circumstance. Rocks are besides normally used, but they ’ ll more like likely be removed and placed nearby, for another visitor to “ happen upon. ” Military challenge coins, however, are much left on the rock for years.

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Category : Economy