World Coin Clinic – How Wishing Wells Work
From ancient offerings to modern coin hauls, the tradition of tossing coins into water runs deeper than you might think. Here’s where your spare change—and your wishes—actually end up.
Where does the tradition of throwing coins into a wishing well originate?
No one knows the origins of this superstition exactly, but the idea of people leaving a monetary offering to spirits transiting through water likely began with concepts related to cleansing. It is believed the custom may have originated from Celtic mythology and is documented to go back to Roman-occupied Britain. UC Irvine researchers documented thousands of first-to-fifth-century coins thrown into a wishing well in Northumberland County, England, as an offering to Coventina, a goddess of wells and springs.
Just how much money is thrown into wishing wells?
No one really knows the value of coins thrown into wishing wells, but some interesting statistics show this can be a profitable enterprise. A church in Loma Linda, California, reported a one-day record of receiving $40,979.37 at its well. The U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, said its well has received more than $2 million but didn’t say over what time period. The Minneapolis Mall of America reportedly collects about $25,000 a year. The lake in front of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas receives about $12,000 in coins annually, and a 2016 report indicates the famed 18th-century Trevi Fountain in Rome accumulated about $1.5 million that year. A 2007 Fountain Money Mountain report claimed tourists globally tossed about $3.7 million into fountains annually.
Where does all this coinage go?
Disney World donates the proceeds from coins it fishes from its lake to Community Based Care of Central Florida. The Bellagio gives its wishing well money to Habitat for Humanity, while the Mall of America reports that it donates well money to “various charitable organizations.” Appropriately, Rainforest Café donates money wished into its fountain to environmental charities.
Is it true that you could barter in telephone tokens at one time?
A telephone or transportation token represents a service, regardless of the inflationary money it may take to purchase them. It could take a dollar to buy a token today and more tomorrow, but it is still vending for the same service; therefore, hoarding tokens is understandable. Some tokens have been known to be more reliable than other forms of currency during problematic times. Moscow transit tokens were used this way when the currency system was out of control at the end of the Soviet Union.
Are the terms numismatist and coin collector the same, or is there a distinction between them worth noting?
Coin collecting is a hobby. Granted, it is also a business for some people. Numismatics is actually a science. It is the science of money and how it impacts society, trade, politics, and more. When an archaeologist studies coins, whether a hoard of U.S. coins buried 30 years ago or a 2,000-year-old collection of ancient coins, a lot can be derived from that find. It can suggest a trade route, a trading center, political boundaries, the technology of the times, criminals hiding their loot, and more. Numismatists can be coin collectors, and likewise, coin collectors can be numismatists.
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