Heads up
"Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck" — but only if it lands heads up.
Luck superstition
Finding a penny
Finding a penny: only lucky if heads up; tails up should be turned over for the next person. First recorded: The rhyme printed from the 1840s. That makes it about 180 years old — the 37th oldest of the 45 superstitions we have dated.
- Earliest record
- 1840s The rhyme printed from the 1840s
- Written down in
- 1867 Harland and Wilkinson, Lancashire
Record: John Harland and T. T. Wilkinson, Lancashire Folk-Lore (London: Frederick Warne, 1867).
When it actually starts
How old is this one
First recorded
The rhyme printed from the 1840s
That makes it
about 180 years old
Rank by age
37th oldest of 45 dated here
Category
Luck
Metal was scarce and any found metal was a small windfall. The rhyme — find a penny, pick it up — dates from the Victorian period, when a penny still bought something.
Why it stuck. The rule requires the coin to be heads up, which halves the qualifying finds and makes each one feel selected rather than random.
36 of the dated superstitions here were written down earlier and 8 later.
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Primary source
As it was written down in 1867
“A crooked sixpence, or a copper coin with a hole through, is accounted a lucky coin.”
John Harland and T. T. Wilkinson, Lancashire Folk-Lore (London: Frederick Warne, 1867) — read the original text.
In 1867 the lucky coin was a bent sixpence or a copper with a hole in it.
The versions people follow
What exactly is believed
Tails up
A tails-up penny is left for someone else, or turned heads up for the next person.
Pennies from heaven
Finding coins is taken by some as a sign from a loved one who has died.
A coin in the shoe
A penny in the bride's shoe brings a prosperous marriage.
Where it lives today
"Pennies from heaven" has become a common modern belief among the bereaved, and many people still pick up heads-up coins.
What people say
Only lucky if heads up; tails up should be turned over for the next person.What is going on
By 2024 a US penny cost more than three cents to make, and the US Mint struck its last pennies for circulation in 2025, so every find is now an old coin.Where it applies. Britain, Ireland and North America.
Other luck superstitions
Nearest in age
Finding a penny is the 37th oldest of the 45 dated superstitions here. Of those, 3 date from 1900 or later and 14 predate the common era.
First-recorded dates are the earliest documented appearance in written sources, not the earliest possible origin — an unrecorded practice can be older. How the dating works and where it is uncertain →
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “Finding a Penny Superstition: Origin and Meaning.” Accessed October 28, 2026. https://astrohot.com/superstitions/finding-a-penny/
For Wikipedia
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