All games are for entertainment and amusement but on a level they carry a symbolic meaning.
Pitching pennies on the surface seems a pleasant activity but looking just below is a formal training for a rude logic of pure capitalism, you play to beat your opponents into bankruptcy.
Any number of players line up a fixed distance away from a wall. The players each take a coin and take turns throwing them towards the wall. The objective is to throw the coins such that they land as close to the wall as possible. The winner collecting all the losing players’ coins from the ground.
Several scoring variants exist. If a coin lands at an angle against the wall, this enables ‘Double Money’ which causes the prize total to double. ‘Triple Money’ is rewarded when a thrower’s coin is standing vertically against the wall. If a coin hits another coin this is known as ‘Jingle’, meaning all shots must be re-taken.
Shots must also be re-taken if the two coins that are parallel to a tangent from the wall are the closest. If the coin rolls the thrower has the chance to retake his shot if the coin is stamped on before it stops and lies flat.
Each player has a two stamp maximum.
If a player pitches a bad shot and wishes to retake the shot he must yell “crap shot”. He is then entitled to take the shot again. Each player can only retake his shot once.
“Pitching pennies is a very old game. While the coins used have inevitably changed, the game was known to be played by the Ancient Greeks using bronze coins. It is believed that this game was used in the first olympics but was later removed due to lack of entertainment value and this is where the idea of the Gold Medal comes from.”
1. Gulick, Charles Burton (1902). The Life of the Ancient Greeks: With Special Reference to Athens. New York, NY: D. Appleton & Co. p. 77. OCLC 415193.
