My mother liked to collect pennies. She found an empty gallon mayonnaise jar, cut a slit in the cap and dropped in the pennies. On a rainy day she would spread them all out on the kitchen table and, like a jigsaw puzzle, look for matching dates. The finest example of a certain year would go into a little drawstring bag, acclaiming their superiority. Sometimes a birthday of someone she loved would arrive at a low in finances and the jar would come out. Just enough for a present would find their way into paper rolls to be cashed in at the bank, but the special ones always remained in their pouch.

On her fiftieth birthday, it dawned on me that a set of books for the penny collector would make a good gift for my mother. The clerk in the numismatic store offered the opinion that it was customary to start off the collection with a coin. So I reached into my pocket for a penny, and much to my amazement the single penny I found was also the very first penny in the Lincoln Head series. This copper penny was minted in Denver and featured the initials of the designer, VDB, under the Lincoln portrait. In spite of having been circulating for fifty two years, not a scratch marred its surface, the copper retaining every nuance of the original stamping. This inexpensive gift brought a big smile to her face, each penny that found a home in the book filled with the hope for a lucky future.

She loved to say the phrase, "A penny for your thoughts", assuring the listener that she was ready and willing to discuss any unspoken thoughts that might be troublesome. She was penny wise and also pound wise. Other family members would be in a constant state of arrears, often saved by my mother's uncanny ability to save money. One reason was that she seldom spent money on herself. Another was the habit of putting aside a portion of any windfall that came her way. She never talked about how much she saved, but always came up with the exact amount we were short with a wink and a "Pay me back when you can" admonishment. No amount of pennies could buy that kind of love.

I came in bald and broke. I'll probably go out the same way.