When touring cemeteries, you could see coins left by past cemetery visitors on the headstones of military members. Depending on the coin’s denomination, these coins have different connotations when placed on the graves of veterans, especially those who died while serving in the military.
The practise of leaving coins with the deceased dates back to the Roman Empire. The River Styx, which divides the worlds of the living and the dead, was crossed by placing coins into the mouths of fallen soldiers in exchange for protection and passage. In nautical folklore, sailors who perished at sea would pay a “ferryman” with cash to take them safely to the afterlife. The practise became more common in the United States during the Vietnam War as a means to remember the dead at a period of political unrest and turbulence over a contentious conflict. The coins served as a subtle way to acknowledge family members and pay tribute to service members.
A coin put on a headstone or at a graveyard is intended to let the soldier’s family know that someone else has paid their respects to the burial. But different coins will have different meanings:
- Leaving a penny at the grave means simply that you visited.
- A nickel indicates that you and the deceased trained at boot camp together.
- A dime means you served with the deceased in some capacity.
- A quarter means you are telling the family that you were with the soldier when the deceased was killed.
Now you know!
