NPM Celebrations - National Coin Week

April 17-23 is National Coin Week. The theme this year is Portraits of Liberty: Icon of Freedom. This was selected because 2016 marks the centennial anniversary of three popular U.S. coin designs featuring Liberty -- the Mercury (or Winged Liberty) dime, the Standing Liberty quarter and the Walking Liberty half dollar.

Let's kick off this week's celebration with some poems about coins and money. The first poem that came to mind for me was this poem by Shel Silverstein.

Kenn Nesbitt shares all kinds of poetry on his web site, Poetry4kids.com. (You'll find them in his books too!) Here are two funny poems about money from The Biggest Burp Every: Funny Poems for Kids, written by Kenn Nesbitt and illustrated by Raphael Domingos.

I Love to Do the Laundry

I love to do the laundry.
I mean it. I don't mind
because I get to keep
whatever money I might find.

I know it sounds ridiculous.
I'm sure it must seem strange.
But every time I wash the clothes
I find some pocket change.

I found a dollar yesterday.
Today I found a ten.
I'm certain that tomorrow
I'll find money once again.

You see, I have a strategy.
(I guess that's what you call it.)
And sometimes I just accidentally
wash my father's wallet.

Copyright © 2014 Kenn Nesbitt. All Rights Reserved.

Floyd the Coin Collector

I'm Floyd, the coin collector.
It's coins that I collect.
I'm really not too finicky
with which ones I select.

I like collecting pennies;
they're all I get sometimes.
But often I get nickels, too,
and frequently it's dimes.

I'll gladly keep a dollar coin,
a quarter, or a pound.
I'd even save a rupee
or a ruble that I found.

A euro here, a guilder there,
a peso or a franc;
I'll happily collect them all
and put them in the bank.

My hobby is a simple one;
it's not the least bit strange.
And all you have to do to help
is give me all your change.

Copyright © 2012 Kenn Nesbitt. All Rights Reserved.

I'm particularly fond of this poem by Sara Teasdale.

The Coin
by Sara Teasdale

Into my heart’s treasury
I slipped a coin
That time cannot take
Nor a thief purloin,
Oh better than the minting
Of a gold-crowned king
Is the safe-kept memory
Of a lovely thing.

Edgar Allan Poe's Pie: Math Puzzlers In Classic Poems (2012), written by J. Patrick Lewis and illustrated by Michael Slack is a collection of cleverly disguised math problems in the form of parodies of classic poems. Here's a poem that asks readers to solve a money problem.

Robert Frost's Boxer Shorts
Inspired by "Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost

Whose underwear?! I wish I knew
Who left these for me, all brand-new—
Five dollars, ninety cents a pair.
They're not my size. I'm forty-two.

And fourteen pairs? Why, I could share
A few with you with some to spare.
If nine are cotton (cotton blend)
And five are silk, then let's compare:

On each set, how much did he spend?
Arithmetic is just the friend
To multiply, divide, or add.
And what's the total in the end?

These boxer shorts are not half bad
With lions, tigers, stripes, and plaid.
My tightie whities look so sad.
My tightie whities look so sad.

Poems © J. Patrick Lewis. All rights reserved.

Let's wrap up today with this poem by Kelly Ramsdell Fineman from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations: Holiday Poems for the Whole Year in English and Spanish, compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.

That's it for today. I hope you'll join me tomorrow for our next celebration.