Coins on gravestones have particular meanings

Visitors paying their respects to fallen servicemen this Memorial Day weekend might observe that the headstones of certain graves have got coins on top of them.

These coins, left by previous visitors to the grave, have unique meanings when left on the gravestone of someone killed while serving in the military, and those meanings vary based on the coins’ denomination.

According to fact-checking website Snopes.com, leaving a coin on a new gravestone is meant as a message to the deceased soldier’s family members that someone had visited the grave to cover their respects. Leaving a cent implies that you visited simply.

Visitors leaving a nickel indicates that visitors and the deceased experienced boot camp together, while a dime means that the visitor served with him in some capacity. By leaving 25 % on the headstone, a guest is telling the grouped family members that they were there when the soldier was killed.

According to tradition, national cemeteries and veterans cemeteries is eventually gathered,with the funds used to maintain the cemetery or even to pay burial charges for homeless veterans.

In the usa, this exercise allegedly became common during the Vietnam War because of the political divide in the country during the war, Snopes reports. It had been a way to show respect without getting into an uncomfortable discussion about the war with the soldier’s household.

Listed by Snopes because “legend,” the website struggles to verify that the tradition actually dates back to Vietnam; in June 2009 the initial mention of the practice dates to a website post, it reports.

Along with monetary coins, {challenge coins can also be on the graves of some servicemen. challenge coins can be found on the graves of some servicemen also. These tokens recognize their bearers as members of a specific military unit and so are not given out easily. Challenge coins found at a grave site almost certainly were left there by members of the soldier’s unit. Challenge coins found at a grave site almost were left there by members of the soldier’s unit.

I is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank god that such men lived. George S Patton

Apex Gold Silver Coin