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Benjamin Franklin, still cashing in |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Tuesday, 02 November 2004 |
The pennies pile up on his grave.
By Howard Shapiro
Inquirer Staff Writer
Talk about earning power: Almost 215 years after his death, Ben Franklin continues to make a living.
His profit comes in pennies, and the occasional nickel, dime or quarter, tossed onto his grave marker at Fifth and Arch Streets, by people who often empty their pockets as if compelled by Franklin's ghost via magnetic force.
Of all the ways that Franklin - a master entrepreneur - hit on to make money, the adage he coined about a penny keeps bringing in the cash. Ever since the mid-1800s, when brides are said to have first tossed pennies onto his grave for an extra measure of luck on their way to the altar, Franklin's little saying has been twisted in his own favor.
To wit, a penny not saved is a penny earned - by Ben. At year's end, the folks at Christ Church Burial Ground say, Mr. Franklin will have earned $750, which will go to the historic church's preservation efforts.
This may seem a pittance to many people. Consider, though, that in 2006 we'll be celebrating the 300th anniversary of the man's birth. Probably no other figure in American history is still raking in a single cent, let alone 75,000 of them in a year.
We can't know for sure what $750 would have been worth in today's money if Franklin had earned it in the 18th century, when he was alive. Tabulations from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics take us back only 91 years, to 1913, when $750 would have had the same buying power as $14,386.36 in today's lucre.
A more generous calculation has Franklin making about $6 million this year, because that's about the worth of $750 today - in original pennies from the late 1700s, that is. Not that so many could even be found.
If that seems high, don't tell the Boston Red Sox' Curt Schilling, who will make more than twice as much as Franklin's $6 million next season - $12.5 million, to be exact, plus an additional $2 million for becoming a World Series champ. Or, you could say, an additional 200 million more pennies. And Curt Schilling never even invented anything.
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Christ Church Burial Ground is inarguably one of America's most fascinating cemeteries because of its colonial residents - people such as Benjamin Rush, father of American psychiatry, and Phillip Syng Physick, father of modern surgery. It reopened to the public in April 2003 after being closed for 25 years.
So there's no way to compare Franklin's earnings now with those of former years, or to discover whether the increase in tourism here this summer is reflected in the number of pennies spent; records were not maintained, according to Donald U. Smith, executive director of the Christ Church Preservation Trust, the nonprofit that manages the site.
During all the years the cemetery was closed, people still threw pennies through the fence rails that separate the plot of Ben and his wife, Deborah, from Arch Street.
On a recent day, by the time the clocks of Old City struck noon, Franklin's grave was covered with 169 pennies (including one that had been flattened in a novelty machine at the Betsy Ross house down the street), eight nickels, four quarters and five dimes: $3.59 in all.
Of that, a total of 13 cents had just been tossed by the Athey family - Harry, a computer consultant; his wife, Luna; and their daughters, Cerridwyn, 8, and Ariadne, 3. They'd traveled to Philadelphia from their home in Penrose, Colo., and were delighted to be staying - by chance - at a motel on Penrose Avenue, which made them feel close to home.
They had only three pennies among them, so Luna threw in a dime. "We were told that you got to make a wish on the pennies you throw, so I figured that I got 10 wishes," she said.
Many people believe in the Lucky Penny Theory - that somehow, the spirit of Ben Franklin will do the same for them as, say, making a wish and blowing out birthday candles. Like the Atheys, people don't always connect the tossing tradition with Franklin's own words about a penny, until a guide or a nearby Philadelphian tips them off.
"Of course!" Luna Athey said, after a cemetery guide clued her in. "Had I thought about it, I would have realized that."
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"It's not the penny so much as what the penny represents," says Neil Ronk, chief guide at Christ Church and the burial ground. Ronk, eloquent in his appreciation of Benjamin Franklin and history in general, says the tradition "underscores the love affair Philadelphia has - and the world has - for Mr. Franklin."
Ronk has "seen people in the worst weather imaginable throwing their pennies. Grandmothers with kids. Parents with their children. People from every race and background. Mr. Franklin represents the kind of person we want our children to be - to love living, to be excited about life."
He points around the cemetery. "We have five signers of the Declaration of Independence here, but nobody runs to their graves to throw pennies. We are the only city in the United States - and maybe in the world - defined by a person who died in the 18th century. When you see people throwing a penny, it's their silent prayer, their way of touching base."
"I collect them several times a day, and take them to the church," explains John Hopkins, curator of the burial ground. He says he sweeps the coins more often on weekends, when crowds swell, and sometimes he finds more than pennies.
Some people leave stones on the grave, a Jewish custom for paying respect at a grave site. "The neatest thing I ever found," says Hopkins, "was a free-drink token from a tavern."
He breaks into a grin at the memory, and the thought of Franklin, who was the ultimate colonial party boy. "Franklin," he declares, "would have approved it."
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/10073952.htm |
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