A tale of two pennies

In the late 1950s my dad and his bro Donald (then around 10) were each given a penny from their uncle, John MacRury, at Finlas of Aird. They decided to cement these to a big rock on the croft for posterity. But only one of them is still there…

The other was retrieved just before the cement went off. It is rumoured to have been exchanged for sweets.

The penny that survived in the rock dates from 1937 and has turned a nice oxide green from nearly 70 years of Hebridean weathering.

It’s tucked away in a fracture and no doubt will be there in another 70 years.

I asked the girls whether they would have left their penny in the rock forever or spend it on sweets. Without any hesitation it was a unanimous vote for the sweet shop!