Where did you see 73?

Louise saw the 1973 minted penny in her coin purse, so did Kelly; in fact Kelly saw two 73s when she dumped the contents of her wallet on her desk! Darryl found a 73 in a handful of change. A nurse in Alamosa freed three 73s from her husband's coin jar. Some Colorado fifth graders discovered a 73 lurking among the pennies they'd brought in for a school fundraiser. Texas fourth graders didn't know for sure which one of them gave a 73 a ride to school, but there it was in a pile of pennies turned in during my Penny Project presentation at their school in October.

I have seen a 73 in the "leave a penny take a penny" dish at convenient stores and restaurants. I take these 73s and but I always leave another year behind in their place. On an outing with my son to see a friend's musical at Buena Vista High School, I discovered a 73 along the ticket line. I immediately phoned my husband and told him, "You'll never guess what I found!" Of course he didn't have to guess because he already knew. "You found a 73. I can hear it in your voice," he replied.

All these 73s, and still, none of them profess to be the 73 I met years ago. This 73 had dropped into my palm as change in a drive-thru window at a fast food restaurant in East Texas. I'd noticed its mint date and wondered aloud where it had been during its years in circulation. Amazingly, it told me and I wrote what it spoke. But within months of capturing the tales of its journeys in my manuscript, "Penny Chronicles," I misplaced it!

Did I spend it at a store somewhere, toss it in a wishing well, drop it on a sidewalk, donate it to a penny fundraiser, lose it in a washing machine? I don't know. But I've been asking everyone I know everywhere I go: Where did you see 73?

(And for anyone wondering if I have lost my mind: Nope. Just my 73.)