“
Ambrose turned on his heel and stormed off, but before he made it through the door, Elodin burst out singing:
‘He's a well-bred ass, you can see it in his stride!
And for a copper penny he will let you take a ride!
”
”
Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1))
“
They would set their course toward it, seeing it grow bigger silently and imperceptibly, a motionless growth--and then, when they were at it, when they were about to bang their noses with a shock against its seeming solid mass, the sun would dim. Wraiths of mist suddenly moving like serpents of the air would coil about them for a second. Grey damp would be around them, and the sun, a copper penny, would fade away. The wings next to their own wings would shade into vacancy, until each bird was a lonely sound in cold annihilation, a presence after uncreation. And there they would hang in chartless nothing, seemingly without speed or left or right or top or bottom, until as suddenly as ever the copper penny glowed and the serpents writhed.
”
”
T.H. White (The Once and Future King)
“
gray pennies that had been made out of steel instead of copper during the Second World War.
”
”
Andrew Clements (Lunch Money (Rise and Shine))
“
I wouldn't be surprised if Ruggedo melted Tik-Tok in one of his furnaces and made copper pennies of him." "In that case, I would still keep going," remarked Tik-Tok, calmly. "Pennies do," said Betsy regretfully.
”
”
L. Frank Baum (Tik-Tok of Oz (Oz, #8))
“
But Penny was born perfect and copper-bright, just like her name. From the minute she came home from the hospital, she was a really happy baby. Mom truly did carry a little bundle of joy into the house. But
”
”
Sharon M. Draper (Out of My Mind (The Out of My Mind Series))
“
The president, the secretary of state, the businessman, the preacher, the vendor, the spies, the clients and managers—all walking around Wall Street like chickens with their heads cut off—rushing to escape bankruptcy—plotting to melt down the Statue of Liberty—to press more copper pennies—to breed more headless chickens—to put more feathers in their caps—medals, diplomas, stock certificates, honorary doctorates—eggs and eggs of headless chickens—multitaskers—system hackers—who never know where they’re heading--northward, backward, eastward, forward, and never homeward—(where is home)—home is in the head—(but the head is cut off)—and the nest is full of banking forms and Easter eggs with coins inside. Beheaded chickens, how do you breed chickens with their heads cut off? By teaching them how to bankrupt creativity.
”
”
Giannina Braschi
“
Love is a maker of false coin, continually changing copper pennies into gold-pieces, and sometimes turning its real gold into copper.
”
”
Honoré de Balzac (Works of Honore de Balzac)
“
The parental eye shed no tears when the time for leave-taking came; a half-rouble in copper coins was given to the boy by way of pocket-money and for sweets, and what is more important, the following admonition:
"Mind now, Pavlusha, be diligent, don't fool or gad about, and above all please your teachers and superiors. If you please your superiors, then you will be popular and get ahead of everyone even if you lag behind in knowledge and talent. Don't be too friendly with the other boys, they will teach you no good; but if you do make friends, cultivate those who are better off and might be useful. Don't invite or treat anyone, but conduct yourself in such a way as to be treated yourself, and above all, take care of and save your pennies, that is the most reliable of all things. A comrade or friend will cheat you and be the first to put all the blame on you when in a fix, but the pennies won't betray you in any difficulty. With money you can do anything in the world."
Having admonished his son thus, the father took leave of him and trundled off home on his 'magpie'. Though from that day the son never set eyes on him more, his words and admonitions had sunk deep into his soul.
”
”
Nikolai Gogol (Dead Souls)
“
Reaction time
Touch the underside of a penny you find
on the street
Doesn't feel any different unless you close your eyes
I can taste the copper in my mouth now
seeping from between my teeth
There's an explanation I'm sure
all this blood
it's from all the times I held the glass too close
And forgot to tip the dancer
A storm just passed
and like every other one that came before it
I was left unharmed
The dogs are all barking and the cats
hiding in the basement
And the sky is colored that bright yellow glow
makes it feel like you're wearing sunglasses
that you can't take off
Wherever you are now
it's not here
because I missed it
I missed the show
I missed the curtain call
And forever more
I am cursed
like a blanket without a body to keep warm
”
”
Dave Matthes (Strange Rainfall on the Rooftops of People Watchers: Poems and Stories)
“
A Quiet Death
Biting your tongue so words don't slip out. The taste of copper, sharp in your mouth. 'Penny for your thoughts' the saying goes, but they could never afford the words buried below. Sentenced to silence, laid unmarked graves, as you're slowly murdered by the things you don't say.
”
”
John Mark Green
“
The fear of the crowd then came to Will, with the taste of a copper penny placed on his tongue; and it was not the fear that they were under divine judgement, but that they were not, and could never be.
”
”
Sarah Perry (The Essex Serpent)
“
..every once in a while, maybe twice a year, I dream of blood. It tastes like copper pennies on your tongue. It’s hot, hotter than you expect, and very wet at first, but it clots even as it fills your mouth. It sticks in your throat but you swallow it down, you can feel it stringy and dark in the back of your throat but you force it down so you can have some more, another mouthful, and another. I know it so well now. The dryness of it, the clots in your teeth. The need.
”
”
David Wellington (13 Bullets (Laura Caxton, #1))
“
But it was no good trying to tell about the beauty. It was just that life was beautiful beyond belief, and that is a kind of joy which has to be lived.
Sometimes, when they came down from the cirrus levels to catch a better wind, they would find themselves among the flocks of cumulus: huge towers of modeled vapor, looking as white as Monday's washing d as solid as meringues. Perhaps one of these piled-up blossoms of the sky, these snow-white droppings of a gigantic Pegasus, would lie before them several miles away. They would set their course toward it, seeing it grow bigger silently and imperceptibly, a motionless growth; and then, when they were at it, when they were about to bang their noses with a shock against its seeming solid mass, the sun would dim. Wraiths of mist suddenly moving like serpents of the air would coil about them for a second. Grey damp would be around them, and the sun, a copper penny, would fade away. The wings next to their own wings would shade into vacancy, until each bird was a lonely sound in cold annihilation, a presence after uncreation. And there they would hang in chartless nothing, seemingly without speed or left or right or top or bottom, until as suddenly as ever the copper penny glowed and the serpents writhed. Then, in a moment of time, they would be in the jeweled world once more: a sea under them like turquoise and all the gorgeous palaces of heaven new created, with the dew of Eden not yet dry.
”
”
T.H. White (The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-4))
“
For lunches he rode the elevator to the fourth-floor food court and ate Thai Town or Subway at a table tucked among potted tropicals, gazing past milling teenagers to the little penny-choked fountain where a copper salmon spat water into a chlorinated pool.
”
”
Anthony Doerr (About Grace)
“
Shimrod gave the boy a copper penny. 'Bring me now a goblet of good tawny wine.'
By a sleight of magic Shimrod augmented the acuity of his hearing, so that the whispers of two young lovers in a far corner were now clearly audible, as were the innkeeper's instructions to Fonsel in regard to the watering of Shimrod's wine.
”
”
Jack Vance (Madouc (Lyonesse, #3))
“
Oh, if I had a penny for every time I've been informed by a evangelical male that I have trouble with submission, I could plate the moon in copper.
”
”
Rachel Held Evans (Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church)
“
There was no wind, and, outside now of the warm air of the cave, heavy with smoke of both tobacco and charcoal, with the odor of cooked rice and meat, saffron, pimentos, and oil, the tarry, wine-spilled smell of the big skin hung beside the door, hung by the neck and all the four legs extended, wine drawn from a plug fitted in one leg, wine that spilled a little onto the earth of the floor, settling the dust smell; out now from the odors of different herbs whose names he did not know that hung in bunches from the ceiling, with long ropes of garlic, away now from the copper-penny, red wine and garlic, horse sweat and man sweat died in the clothing (acrid and gray the man sweat, sweet and sickly the dried brushed-off lather of horse sweat, of the men at the table, Robert Jordan breathed deeply of the clear night air of the mountains that smelled of the pines and of the dew on the grass in the meadow by the stream.
”
”
Ernest Hemingway (HEMINGWAY)
“
Grey damp would be around them, and the sun, a copper penny, would fade away. The wings next to their own wings would shade into vacancy, until each bird was a lonely sound in cold annihilation, a presence after uncreation. And there they would hang in chartless nothing, seemingly without speed or left or right or top or bottom, until as suddenly as ever the copper penny glowed and the serpents writhed.
”
”
T.H. White (The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-4))
“
I was always eh, kinda want to like consider myself kind of a pioneer of the palette, a restaurateur if you will. I've wined, dined, sipped and supped in some of the most demonstrably beamer epitomable bistros in the Los Angles metropolitan region. Yeah, I've had strange looking patty melts at Norms. I've had dangerous veal cutlets at the Copper Penny. Well what you get is a breaded salsbury steak in a shake-n-bake and topped with a provocative sauce of Velveeta and uh, half-n-half. Smothered with Campbell's tomato soup. See I have kinda of a uh...well I order my veal cutlet, Christ it left the plate and it walked down to the end of the counter. Waitress, ? she's wearing those rhinestone glasses with the little pearl thing clipped on the sweater. My veal cutlet come down, tried to beat the shit out of my cup of coffee. Coffee just wasn't strong enough to defend itself.
”
”
Tom Waits
“
You worked for Walmart, Nestle, De Beers, or some other corporate monster. You were wealthy but you often bathed me in pennies. Melted pennies. I let you because I thought you were infallible. I drank molten copper because you told me to. I would do anything you asked me to.
”
”
Logan Ryan Smith (Y is for Fidelity)
“
I've been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But -- and this is the point -- who gets excited by a mere penny? If you follow one arrow, if you crouch motionless on a bank to watch a tremulous ripple thrill on the water and are rewarded by the sight of a muskrat kit paddling from its den, will you count that sight a chip of copper only, and go your rueful way? It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.
”
”
Annie Dillard (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek)
“
All that night, after I shut the door and left Number 16 empty, I went looking for the parts of my city that have lasted. I walked down streets that got their names in the Middle Ages: Copper Alley, Fishamble Street, Blackpitts where the plague dead were buried. I looked for cobblestones worn smooth and iron railings gone thin with rust. I ran my hand over the cool stone of Trinity’s walls and I crossed the spot where nine hundred years ago the town got its water from Patrick’s Well; the street sign still tells you so, hidden in the Irish that no one ever reads. I paid no attention to the shoddy new apartment blocks and the neon signs, the sick illusions ready to fall into brown mush like rotten fruit. They’re nothing; they’re not real. In a hundred years they’ll be gone, replaced and forgotten. This is the truth of bombed-out ruins: hit a city hard enough and the cheap arrogant veneer will crumble faster than you can snap your fingers; it’s the old stuff, the stuff that’s endured, that might just keep enduring. I tilted my head up to see the delicate, ornate columns and balustrades above Grafton Street’s chain stores and fast-food joints. I leaned my arms on the Ha’penny Bridge where people used to pay half a penny to cross the Liffey, I looked out at the Custom House and the shifting streams of lights and the steady dark roll of the river under the falling snow, and I hoped to God that somehow or other, before it was too late, we would all find our way back home.
”
”
Tana French (Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad #3))
“
Taunja Bennett kissed her mother good-bye and said she was off to meet a boyfriend. She disappeared from sight in the direction of a bus stop, her Walkman plugged into her ears. Lately the twenty-three-year-old high school dropout had been listening over and over to “Back to Life” by Soul II Soul. She carried a small black purse. Taunja was mildly retarded from oxygen deprivation at birth. She’d been a difficult child. In a cooking class at Cleveland High School, she assaulted a classmate in a quarrel over a piece of cake. Addicted to alcohol and drugs, she was committed to a state hospital for six months. At twenty-one, she frequented northeast Portland bars like the Woodshed, the Copper Penny and Thatcher’s. She hustled drinks, shot pool and got into trouble with men. She was petite and pretty—five-five, with glistening dark brown hair, liquid brown eyes, a trim figure,
”
”
Jack Olsen ("I": The Creation of a Serial Killer)
“
I've just been certified as a shaman, or sha-woman, if you please," Dr. Tuttle said. "You can hop up on the table if you prefer not to stand. You look worse for wear. Is that the expression?" I leaned carefully against the bookshelf.
"What do you use the massage table for?" I heard myself ask.
"Mystical recalibrations, mostly. I use copper dowels to locate lugubriations in the subtle body field. It's an ancient form of healing—locating and then surgically removing cancerous energies."
"I see."
"And by surgery I mean metaphysical. Like magnet sucking. I can show you the magnet machine if you're interested. Small enough to fit in a handbag. Costs a pretty penny, although it's very useful. Very. Not so much for insomniacs, but for compulsive gamblers and Peeping Toms—adrenaline junkies, in other words. New York City is full of those types, so I foresee myself getting busier this year. But don't worry. I'm not abandoning my psychiatric clients. There are only a few of you anyway. Hence my new certification. Costly, but worth it. Sit on it," she insisted, so I did, grappling with the edge of the cool pleather of the massage table to hoist myself up. My legs swung like a kid's at the doctor's.
”
”
Ottessa Moshfegh (My Year of Rest and Relaxation)
“
I used to believe, bless my naive little heart, that I had something to offer the robbed dead. Not revenge—there’s no revenge in the world that could return the tiniest fraction of what they’ve lost—and not justice, whatever that means, but the one thing left to give them: the truth. I was good at it. I had one, at least, of the things that make a great detective: the instinct for truth, the inner magnet whose pull tells you beyond any doubt what’s dross, what’s alloy and what’s the pure, uncut metal. I dug out the nuggets without caring when they cut my fingers and brought them in my cupped hands to lay on graves, until I found out—Operation Vestal again—how slippery they were, how easily they crumbled, how deep they sliced and, in the end, how very little they were worth. In Domestic Violence, if you can get one bruised girl to press charges or go to a shelter, then there’s at least one night when her boyfriend is not going to hit her. Safety is a small debased currency, copper-plated pennies to the gold I had been chasing in Murder, but what value it has it holds. I had learned, by that time, not to take that lightly. A few safe hours and a sheet of phone numbers to call: I had never been able to offer a single murder victim that much.
”
”
Tana French (The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad #2))
“
Imagine that you are in your house—no—you are locked in your house, cannot get out. It is the dead of winter. The drifted snow is higher than your windows, blocking the light of both moon and sun. Around the house, the wind moans, night and day. Now imagine that even though you have plenty of electric lights, and perfectly good central heating, you are almost always in the dark and quite cold, because something is wrong with the old-fashioned fuse box in the basement. Inside this cobwebbed, innocuous-looking box, the fuses keep burning out, and on account of this small malfunction, all the power in the house repeatedly fails. You have replaced so many melted fuses that now your little bag of new ones is empty; there are no more. You sigh in frustration, and regard your frozen breath in the light of the flashlight. Your house, which could be so cozy, is tomblike instead. In all probability, there is something quirky in the antiquated fuse box; it has developed some kind of needless hair trigger, and is not really reacting to any dangerous electrical overload at all. Should you get some pennies out of your pocket, and use them to replace the burned-out fuses? That would solve the power-outage problem. No more shorts, not with copper coins in there. Using coins would scuttle the safeguard function of the fuse box, but the need for a safeguard right now is questionable, and the box is keeping you cold and in the dark for no good reason. Well, probably for no good reason. On the other hand, what if the wiring in the house really is overloaded somehow? A fire could result, probably will result eventually. If you do not find the fire soon enough, if you cannot manage to put the fire out, the whole house could go up, with you trapped inside. You know that death by burning is hideous. You know also that your mind is playing tricks, but thinking about fire, you almost imagine there is smoke in your nostrils right now. So, do you go back upstairs and sit endlessly in a dark living room, defeated, numb from the cold, though you have buried yourself under every blanket in the house? No light to read by, no music, just the wail and rattle of the icy wind outside? Or, in an attempt to feel more human, do you make things warm and comfortable? Is it wise to gamble with calamity and howling pain? If you turn the power back on, will you not smell nonexistent smoke every moment you are awake? And will you not have far too many of these waking moments, for how will you ever risk going to sleep? Do you sabotage the fuse box? I
”
”
Martha Stout (The Myth of Sanity: Divided Consciousness and the Promise of Awareness)
“
It was where once, in town, I watched my grandfather come out of Brews, take a big copper penny from his pocket, place it on the path, and walk away. When I asked him why, he smiled an iceberg smile whose depths were unknown, and said, ‘The man, woman or child that finds that will think it’s their lucky day.’ He delivered a large wink, added: ‘And it will be.
”
”
Niall Williams (This Is Happiness)
“
Mitch: “I heard a story from Lindsey about you bunch doing bogus cheques in steak houses.” Stevie: “Lindsey and his friend Tom used to go into every coffee shop in Hollywood and write hot cheques and never go back again . . . The Copper Penny, Big Boy’s . . .” Mitch: “Boy, you two really fell into the American Dream, huh?” Stevie: “Yeah, We actually fell into it out of nowhere. We were just nowhere.
”
”
Sean Egan (Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac: Interviews and Encounters (Musicians in Their Own Words Book 10))
“
I had a habit of collecting pennies I found on the street. I’ve always loved pennies. I like the copper sheen to them. But I have stopped collecting pennies in front of Janet
”
”
Taylor Jenkins Reid (Evidence of the Affair)
“
You collect a hunderd pennies in one minute by Master’s timepiece and you bought yourself free. Then they shakes a jar of coppers onto the belly of a shovel and holds it over the campfire long time. When they think it fun enough, they say, get yourself ready, and now you go, boy. The pennies go in the dirt around the fire and I got to pick them up and keep hold on them.” “Oh,” said Ada, with a sound like a kind of punch in the air, or out of it. “I gets forty-two hot cents before that minute up,” he said, holding out his hands again. “Here’s the proof.” “Oh,” she said. “And no freedom.” “Nothing next, but that we left,” he said. “One by one, and not on the same path, turns out.” “And here you are.” “And wherever this be, I don’t know. Some mystery or t’other.” She lifted her shoulders and dropped them. “Well. With me I suppose.
”
”
Gregory Maguire (After Alice)
“
SOLUTION: A few drops of bleach work as well as that plant fertilizer they give you at the flower shop. If you don’t have bleach, copper can do the deed: just drop a penny in the water instead.
”
”
Lisa Katayama (Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan)
“
During the past summer I had two students who lived on mineralized milk for 6 weeks. They consumed between 3 and 4 quarts of milk daily together with the proper quantities of iron, copper, and manganese. The only other food that they ate was one orange a day. The boys remained in excellent health and an actual increase in the hemoglobin content of the blood was observed during the experimental period. This not only demonstrates the completeness of a diet of mineralized milk, but it also shows that humans can rely on inorganic forms of iron and copper for hemoglobin production. Thus the entire iron requirement of one individual can be supplied at the cost of a few pennies per year, and the copper requirement can be satisfied for about one-tenth of one cent.
”
”
C.A. Elvehjem (Significance of Iron and Copper in Blood Restoration)
“
Grandmother Marilyn had a dog back then, a miniature Pinscher named Penny, for the coins of copper fur over his eyes. She loved that dog almost as much as Mr. Nosy.
”
”
S.A. Hunt (Malus Domestica (Malus Domestica, #1))
“
Prefer to use a penny? Copper is also a natural fungicide and can prevent bacterial growth on the stems, thus prolonging plant life.
”
”
Lisa Katayama (Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan)
“
The Dog Killer in Your Pocket Here’s another danger that might surprise you Just as dog owners often don’t realize their canine friends are too heavy, they may have a blind spot about another threat. Surprisingly, the lowly penny can become a lethal weapon against dogs—specifically pennies minted after 1982. Although all pennies are equal in value—one cent, no matter what year it is—their compositions are not. Pennies that were produced between 1962 and 1982 are predominantly copper (95 percent), whereas pennies churned out in 1982 and after are mostly zinc (97.5 percent). Zinc is an essential mineral but is undesirable in excessive amounts. When pennies meet the acid in a dog’s stomach, the zinc gets released rapidly, which can destroy red blood cells and, in turn, lead to a number of debilitating conditions, including kidney or liver damage.
”
”
Scientific American (Our Furry Friends: The Science of Pets)
“
was achingly hollow inside, her words dropping like copper pennies down an empty well.
”
”
Natasha Boyd (Deep Blue Eternity)
“
Ugh. That smell. It always conjures up hated memories of the stupid jar of pennies my father had kept on the window sill in the den whenever he was home. The stench of the copper pennies baking in the hot sun stunk up the room even more than he did. I hated going in there. Even after he went back on the road and Mom moved the jar, the smell lingered.
”
”
Mark Tufo (Deadly Eleven)
“
they aren’t sterling silver or even gold. They’re this deep copper color, blackened at the edges. Realization washes over me, as potent and clear as an ocean wave. It’s a penny. A real penny that has been attached to a bracket, melded to make this cufflink that he wears on his body. I pick one up and find it warm. My gaze rises to meet his. “Where is this from?” I already know the answer, but it still makes me shiver to hear him say, “They’re two of the breadcrumbs you left me. So I never forget.
”
”
Skye Warren (The King (Masterpiece Duet, #1))
“
Life had been bursting at the seams back then, as shiny as a copper penny found on the sidewalk. Now she felt as though she had dropped her coin purse between the bars of a sidewalk grate and was straining her fingers to retrieve it.
”
”
Talya Tate Boerner (Bernice Runs Away)
“
She takes a long sip of the latte. She can’t say if it’s good, because she can’t taste it. The metallic tang in her mouth won’t dissipate. Copper pennies, she’s learning, is what betrayal tastes like.
”
”
Jennifer Hillier (Little Secrets)
“
Ruth smiled still more broadly. ‘Good,’ she said. ‘Won’t be a mo.’ She moved a shiny copper pan from the bench on to the stove and began to stir it. Addie stared down at her feet. Snow slid from her shoes on to the tiled floor and quickly melted there. She glanced up. Had Ruth noticed? She hadn’t. She was deep in conversation with Penny, over by the stove. Addie pulled at her wet laces, took off her trainers. She held them up for a moment. Where was she supposed to put them? Nobody had said. She pushed them out of sight, under her chair, clutched her damp coat collar closer round her neck. She looked around. It was the kind of kitchen you see in films, or in magazines at the doctor’s surgery. Big tiles on the floor, big wooden furniture, big dark beams across the ceiling. There was an enormous fridge
”
”
Susanna Bailey (Snow Foal)
“
I thought about that, copper bodies and silver wings. Eventually both would oxidize, but neither would rust. The copper would turn green and the silver black.
Absentmindedly, I said “Unless they’re polished, their colors will fade”.
“Like a person”
“Pardon?” I returned my gaze to her profile.
“People need to be polished, stroked, touched,” her tone was abstract, “and when they are not polished, their colors fade. They change, warp, become something different”.
”
”
Penny Reid
“
Jesus, today I heard how pennies can't be made of copper anymore because the amount of copper needed to make a penny is more expensive than a penny is worth, and Lord, I feel it. They ask me to be something smaller, to be pressed down into something worth less, to be crushed into something worthless. Jesus, I have tried, I have tried to be small enough, I have tried to be shiny, I have tried to be worthy, but every time I press myself with the imprint of someone else's expectations it misses the mark and I am left off-centre.
”
”
Emmy Kegler