Had just made a joke about this and it got me wondering: is this a dick move? Is it even legal? Nobody truly believes their wish will come true, right? That’s just free money sitting in the water. Or would most people these days consider them to be donations? I can only assume that someone has to clean them out every now and then so as not to become totally filled with coins. Who would keep it? The city? The private institution that owns the fountain (if in some corporate lobby area or something)? Is it donated to charity?
Secondary question: Is this even a tradition outside the US? How common around the world is throwing coins into wells or fountains and making a wish?
A long, loooonng time ago I met a woman who was one of the people dressing up as reenactors in an early colonial American settlement. She cosplayed as a weaver in a house that had a pond outside. Every day before she started work she would hoik her skirt up under her armpits and wade into the pond to pick up coins with her feet (she had very articulate toes). Inevitably she turned round one day to find a family of visitors gawping at her non-colonial underwear. She said the coins added up to quite a haul over the week.
I feel great about it, nice way to cool off on a hot day.
That’s why I wish someone would steal my coin right before I throw it in. It’s win-win
The most famous fountain for coin tossing/wish making is Trevi in Rome (and I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole concept came from there). You are legally forbidden from taking money back out of it there. The moment the coin sinks into the water, it belongs to the municipality, so taking it back out constitutes theft. The municipality is allowed (and indeed forced) to clear the coins from the fountain (otherwise there would be no water left after a while) and AFAIK they donate the cash for a good cause.
Whoever owns the fountains owns the money.
If someone throws money into a fountain and then wishes then that in itself is a complete transaction with whichever supernatural entity is being bargained with.
I am assuming that any entity which is powerful enough to grant wishes is also powerful enough to hang onto the money if that should be its wish.
Alternatively it’s a quaint custom that people engage in as a form of custom and the pleasure comes with a link to the tradition.
The periodic clearing out of the fountains is both necessary maintenance and a form of income that pays for said maintenance. No one is really harmed by this.
To add to this as someone who has a friend that owns a publicly accessible fountain that needs the coins cleaned out of frequently.
He doesn’t care if a kid steals a handful of coins once in awhile. Most parents will tell their kids to put the coins back so that the person’s wishes still come true, but he doesn’t like when adults try and take coins out for any reason.
The coins are a not insignificant amount of money that helps pay for the cost of running the fountain and having adults fish out all the quarters does make the value of the coins significantly worse when it comes to cleaning time. Granted most people toss pennies to begin with.
Basically don’t dig out coins from a fountain unless you have permission from the owner of said fountain.
It’s a ritual sacrifice, so the important thing is that the person parted with the money. It’s not that important if the deity gets it, or who gets it.
Precisely. 🙂
Often, that money is used to fund the historical site to which the fountain belongs, they are basically donations.
I’d much rather someone who actually needs the money enough to pick up small change takes them rather than for them to just sit there. If someone’s desperate enough to fish coins out of a fountain for a few dollars, they can absolutely have them.
They’re not going to just sit there, they help pay for the maintenance of the fountain. It’s like reaching into a donation box.
A city having to put a bit more money into maintenance of a tourist attraction vs a homeless person getting to not starve for one more day. Hm. Tricky.
At least here in Europe, nobody’s starving on the streets. May I suggest building less fountains and more social security nets if preventing starvation is your concern?
I’d be all for that.
I see them as tossing money to a stripper, except its a fountain…
🤔
Toss a coin to your stripper, Oh valley of chintzy
Hell yeah. They are always wet, usually a little dirty, and they are constantly putting on a show.
I kind of think of it like big give a penny take a penny tray.
THE CRIPPLE PEOPLE JAR!!!
For me, it depends. What I really like is what happens in Las Vegas, where most of the hotels/casinos give it to charities.
Ive seen it in an amusement park, where people throw money in a hole in a stone, just for fun, and I don’t think the amusement park is that short of money, that they would use that money.
