Sunday Morning:
I learned to pitch coins in the mid 60’s against the brick walls of my neighborhood church between Sunday morning masses.

It helped to kill the down time between the morning and afternoon masses as a paperboy selling the Sunday newspapers to the faithful.

To play the game each player would take a coin of the same value (mostly quarters and pennies) and take turns throwing them towards the wall (a side walk curbstone or crack would also do). The objective is to throw the coins as close to the wall as possible. Rolling the coin was forbidden. Rules changed from neighborhood to neighborhood like for example my pals required that the coin hit the wall to be a valid throw.

An Ancient Greek Game:
You might be surprised to learn that pitching coins was known to be played by the Ancient Greeks using bronze coins. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I’ve always I’ve always loved the Greek culture.

Rumor has it that it was also one of the original events played during the first Olympics which supposedly lead to the idea of awarding the Olympic Gold Medal. Tossing coins however, did not have enough of an attraction as the other events and was later dropped. 

Spooky and The Zen Art Of Life Balance :

Early Sunday morning I had a frequent customer known throughout the neighborhood as Spooky….. only one name kinda like Cher or Sting. He wore dark black Ray Ban sun glasses every morning, noon and night and “Rat Pack” style clothing. Spooky walked everywhere and as long as I knew him never owned a car. He worked as a drummer in a band that played in Boston’s notorious “Combat Zone” playing backup to the talent in clubs like the Naked I, Centerfolds and the Glass Slipper. The strip joints he played carried an air of danger and a sexy mystique for a young kid from Cambridge. Spooky introduced me to the rules of pitching coins and a Zen like approach to a perfect coin pitch. He’d profess about coin pitching as if he were talking about his experiences in life… He’d say a lot of things I didn’t understand at the time but seem to make sense over time:

Spooky Quotes:
“pitching done well involves finding the balance point (of the coin)”.

“everything good in life is achieved through good balance…..
…..the trick is finding it“.

“If you can’t find balance in life, you’ll find your life is never in balance”

“Pitching coins is about give and take…Winning takes your talent but losing gives character” .

A game where everyone had a chance to win..something

Pitching may sound like a gambling game, with the winner collecting all the losing players’ coins from the ground. But using Spooky’s philosophy …we made it more of a game than of a gamble. Our variation that included the game ending in what was called “tips”. Tips was a version where the player whose coin landed closest to the wall had to gather up all of the coins and then toss them all into the air. … Before the coins landed he would have to shout “heads” or “tails” and then he could keep every coin that matched what he choose.

The remaining coins (if any) would then be gathered by the player whose coin landed second closest to the wall, who would repeat the throwing and calling of heads or tails. This process would continue until all the coins had been picked up.

Several scoring variants existed. If a coin landed at an angle against the wall “a leaner” this enabled ‘Double Money’ which caused the prize total to double. ‘Triple Money’ was rewarded when a thrower’s coin was standing flat vertically against the wall.

Times and Change Changed
By the late 1960s pitching coins was no longer as popular as before. As the coins became lighter they did not work as well with pitching (our money lost both it purchasing power and its net weight) . TV and later the internet took the place of coin pitching. It’s not that kids don’t gather together anymore to play games …..it’s more that coins have been replaced for better or for worse by media devices i.e. TV, Radios, iPhones, Video Games… Kids play lots of games with friends today but for me the difference is back in the day pitching coins was more of a friendly game with friends. Heads I win…Tails you do too…

Post Note.. Coins used by some who played pitch before, during or after Sunday services may have been originally intended as donations to the church collection box. Names have been withheld to protect the guilty until next Saturday Confessional Service where they may be resolved of any and all sins… Amen