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The Hundred Dollar Penny Ralph worked at a steel foundry in Pittsburgh during the early 1930's. He slaved over the kilns (furnaces), pouring molten steel 14 hours a da, seven days a week for the meager wages of twenty dollars per week to feed, cloth and house his family. Ralph's biggest ambition was to finally purchase a new car for his family. He scraped and saved for years just to get the hundred dollars for the down payment. When Ralph finally was able to scrounge up the money, he proudly went to pick out his trophy, a shiny new Chevy Cabriolet. On his way to the dealership, however, he was struck by a runaway horse and carriage and broke his leg. During the next four weeks, he used the money he had saved for the car to pay his doctor bills and to support his family while he recuperated. On the day before Ralph went back to work, he dug into his pocket to see how much of the hundred dollars he had left. Seeing that he only had one penny left, he gave it to his youngest son. Now, this penny was quite distinctive in that it was slightly bent and had a small moon-shaped dent just over and to the left of the figurehead in the center. The child quickly ran down the street and popped the penny into the gumball machine outside the local gas station. A week later, the child was playing stickball in the street after school. His friend had just hit a long fly, and he was chasing the ball into the gutter when he found a penny lying in the dirt. He slipped it into his pocket and continued playing. When he got home for supper that evening, he shouted to his father, "Look, Dad! I found a penny!" His father looked at the slightly bent penny and was astounded to see a moon-shaped dent just over and to the left of the figurehead. The child went to the candy store with his mother the next day and bought a jaw breaker. Week after week over the next few years, the "moon penny," as it came to be called, turned up in various places throughout the city. The child would find it in the street, at the park, in the playground at school, in the parking lot at the grocery store, at the art museum, and a couple of times outside the stadium at the Pirates game. By the time the child started high school, though, the penny was pretty much forgotten. Years later, Ralph had retired from the foundry, bought his new Chevy Impala and moved the family to California. The youngest child had graduated UCLA, married and had children of his own. One day Ralph decided to take his grandchildren to Disneyland. As they sat and waited for the gates to open, his youngest grandchild ran up to him and shouted, "Grandpa, look! I found a penny!" Ralph took the slightly bent and highly discolored penny in his hand. When he checked the date on the coin (1935), he was amazed to see a small moon-shaped dent just over and to the left of the figurehead. (Note from the author: Are you still having trouble figuring out the moral of the story? I'll give you a hint: IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY!!)
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