What It Means To See A Penny On A Grave In New York State

You may have been to a cemetery on Memorial Day or over the weekend and noticed some change on certain graves. What does it mean? We were talking about this on our morning show this week and found out there are some interesting facts about that.

Placing currency like pennies and nickles on a grave is a tradition that started after the Vietnam War and according to at least one report:

the coin goes on the grave markers of America's military veterans. Leaving a coin on the headstone lets loved ones of the deceased soldier's family know that someone has come to visit the grave.

Each coin represents a different person that passes by. For example the penny.

Leaving a penny means you visited and want to thank the veteran of the armed forces for their service.

Given what has happened here in Buffalo and in Texas over the last couple of weeks, this past Memorial Day was more somber than most. As a Nation, we are all still grieving and trying to understand and comprehend what exactly we are witnessing. But on Memorial Day, I tried to make it a point to take at least a few minutes and explain to our sons (we have three under 6 years old) what the significance of Memorial Day is.

My parents have passed and my father law has passed and when we visited their graves, I tried to point out those men and women who were buried near by who fought and died for our freedom. We still live in the greatest country in the world and we owe so much to those who have come before us to fight to keep our way of life. Although we didn't leave any coins behind, our sons took away a little bit of knowledge about why we honor them on Memorial Day.