What Coins on a Veteran's Grave Mean: Penny, Nickel, Dime and Quarter

Walk through a veterans section on any weekend and you will see coins resting on top of the headstones. They are not loose change. Each one is a small message left for the family: someone came by, and they remembered.

What each coin means

The tradition as it is usually told:

• A penny means someone visited and paid their respects.
• A nickel means the visitor trained with the veteran, at boot camp or in a training unit.
• A dime means the visitor served with the veteran.
• A quarter means the visitor was with the veteran when they died.

Nobody can point to where it started. It is often linked to the Vietnam era, when it could be hard to talk openly about the war, and it spread widely in the last twenty years through veterans' groups and social media. Whatever its age, families who find a dime on a father's headstone understand it immediately: a fellow soldier stood there.

How to leave a coin

• Place it on the top edge of the headstone, not on the grass, where it will be lost at the next mowing.
• Leave the coin that is true for you. A penny from a stranger means as much as a dime from a friend.
• Never take a coin that is already there. It was left for someone else to find.

What cemeteries do with the coins

Grounds crews collect coins, along with other mementos, during regular maintenance, so a coin will not stay for long. Some cemeteries are stricter than others. Arlington National Cemetery, for example, does not allow commemorative items of any kind and collects whatever is left. If you want something that lasts longer than a coin, flowers placed within the cemetery's rules are the usual choice. Each national cemetery posts its own flower rules, and you can find them on our national cemeteries pages.

Other things left on military headstones

• Small stones. A Jewish tradition that many families now share, meaning the grave was visited.
• Challenge coins. Unit coins left by those who served alongside the veteran.
• Small flags. Most visible around Memorial Day, when volunteers place them across many national cemeteries.

A tradition for anyone

You do not need to have served to leave a coin. A penny on a stranger's headstone on Veterans Day is a simple way to say that someone noticed. For the family, finding it can mean more than any formal ceremony.