Small Change

[dukealien]

Pleasing and educational.  Googling "peace dollar" led me to hobo nickels - a fascinating subject.

Small Change

Throw wheat pennies into the air.
I-Ching sorts out
answers from questions unasked.

Indian head nickel, where did you go?
Back to the Black Hills to die.

Anonymity turns on a Mercury head dime,
who is really Wallace Stevens’ wife.

Kennedy’s head a half-dollar makes,
but where is his brain?

The Peace dollar, 
a decapitated Goddess of Liberty, minted in 1921, 
didn’t last long.  Nor did Peace.

I was taught I could use pennies instead of yarrow sticks for consulting the I-Chiing, but they had to be wheat pennies.

Legend has it that the model for the Mercury head dime was Elsie Stevens, Wallace's wife.