Learn of the Rare Times When Money Literally Fell from Heaven

Pennies, dimes, and quarters that miraculously appear out of nowhere

Money from heaven
Money from heaven. Getty Images

It's a bizarre phenomenon that many people wish they could experience: pennies, dimes, and quarters - and even bills - falling out of the sky. We're not talking about finding coins on the street. We're talking about money materializing seemingly out of nowhere, appearing mysteriously in houses and apartments with no easy or logical explanation.

It's Raining Money

There are many documented instances of money raining down from the skies. During a storm in August 1940, numerous coins fell on the Meshchera region of Russia. In 1956, pennies and halfpennies plopped down on children in Hanham, England, as they were heading home from school. And in 1976, two clergymen watched as 2,000 marks worth of banknotes fluttered down from a clear sky in Limburg, West Germany.

Bryan B. was on his lunch hour when he was showered with pennies one September afternoon. He was walking in the office parking lot when he heard something metallic click against the asphalt. "Just a couple feet in front of me," Bryan said, "I saw two shiny new pennies, glimmering in the sun against the black pavement. As I was about to pick them up, something fell right in front of my face, then another, and another, which almost hit me in the arm before hitting the ground. There were now about six or seven bright, freshly minted cents around me. I looked around to see who might be throwing their change at me, and from where, but I seemed to be alone in the lot, and there was nowhere above me somebody could be dropping them from; I was still too far from the office building for that to be possible. As I stood there, wondering what the heck was going on, I felt a sudden shooting pain on the top of my head and saw a penny land at my feet after it struck me. I bent down and picked up the handful of pennies, and as I was picking them up, two or three more fell to the ground nearby. I picked one up and it was very warm. What was also somewhat odd was that every penny was dated 2000."

Even luckier was Ellie, to whom a fortunate wind blew even higher currency. She was gathering dry clothes from her backyard clothesline one day in Australia. A small dust eddy whirled around her, carrying dry leaves and dust - and something else. "Whirling in the centre I saw a flash of blue," Ellie said. "I grabbed at it as the eddy whirled past and was very pleased to see it was a $10 note. A bit of luck, I thought - unusual perhaps, but not that surprising, seeing it was such a windy day. A few more days passed. No wind now, just completely calm and still days. Once again I was out in the yard, and under a lilac bush, I saw a glimpse of red. This was a $20 note! That wasn't the end. In the next few days, I also found lying on the grass in various parts of the yard a $5 note (purple) and another $20. The next day my son came in the from the yard calling jubilantly, "Hey, mom, look what I found in the yard!" It was yet another $20 note! But just as a final little joke, one day I pulled out from under my bed a pair of slippers that I hadn't worn for a long time - and there nestled in one was a 50 cent coin!"

Sometimes this "money from heaven" truly seems like a godsend when it appears in desperately needed situations. That was certainly the case for a woman we'll call Mary, who was an unwed mother of an 11-month-old son. She barely earned enough to pay the rent, buy food and medicine, and pay the babysitter so she could work. One day around Christmastime, she took her baby to the grocery store with her because she couldn't afford to pay a sitter while she shopped. She had only $20 to her name. "We were parked at the store, and I remember thinking to myself, 'Oh, God! How am I going to get the things I need with only $20?' That amount would cover diapers and formula, but not the food we needed to get by. It was a very cold, damp and windy night. I asked God to protect my son since there was no other way than to take him out in the elements. As I got out of the car and put him in the grocery cart, I noticed that no one else was anywhere in sight. Then, three $20 bills blew up to me! Then the wind suddenly stopped. I could hardly believe my eyes! I looked left, right and all around. There was no one else in the parking lot! I knew somehow, somewhere God saw and heard my plight and sent 'money from heaven.'"

...Pennies Around the House...

As remarkable as the previous stories are, there are even more mysterious occurrences. Money delivered by the wind is one thing, but coins - sometimes dozens of them - inexplicably showing up around the house is even more difficult to fathom.

Sometimes they're just pennies. It's not unusual to find some pennies lying around the house; they are easily dropped and lost. But what's notable about these cases is that the pennies were found in unlikely places. One woman says that when her daughter moved into a new apartment, she began "finding pennies in places where they could only have been placed deliberately, such as: between sheets in freshly made beds, in corners behind doors, in front of doorways, drawers, bathtub, and garage. Recently, while watching TV in bed, a penny fell from the ceiling fan (while it was on). She once was standing in front of her dresser and one fell from somewhere."

Kim, a 33-year-old professional, also began finding pennies all over her new home, but with a strange connection to extreme stress in her life. "The pennies were everywhere," Kim said. "I was going through a bad divorce and was really down, and didn't know what to make of it. My life got better and the kids and I adjusted to our new way of life. No more pennies. Then recently, I started having troubles with my 16-year-old daughter. She ran away and is involved in destructive behavior. Then the pennies started reappearing again - everywhere. I came home from work and there was a penny on my pillow in my bedroom! They seem to be everywhere that I go."

...and Dimes...

For some reason, dimes seem to be the coins most common in these baffling experiences. For Tait, the dimes began to appear in 1995, when she was struggling to complete college while raising her small daughter. Money was tight, but she began finding dimes, which seemed to appear out of the ether in the bathroom of her tiny one-bedroom apartment. "Throughout the 18 months we lived there, I would constantly find dimes in our bathroom. Next, to the tub, I would find dimes. At first, I figured they fell out of my boyfriend's pants pocket. Then I started to hear the distinct sound of coins dropping at all hours of day or night. The sound always came from the bathroom. This continued regularly, and I would pick up the dimes - sometimes there would be several and always in the same place near the tub. One day I was there alone and using the bathroom. While sitting there, I caught a motion in the corner of my eye in the open doorway. On the rug, was a dime next to the doorframe. It had fallen and landed soundlessly on the rug just outside of the bathroom. I am delighted to think it was a sign of caring from loving beings."

W.D. was in bed one morning when a dime seemingly tried to communicate with her. She was lying in bed waiting for her snooze alarm to go off when "all of a sudden, I felt a fast tapping in the mattress as if someone were using their finger to get my attention. I then felt something touch my leg. At first, I thought it was my little Pekinese next to me, but she was not in the room. As I put my hand down by my leg, I felt something small in size. It was a dime! I know it's a message of some kind, but not sure as of yet what it is."

...Quarters and More

Where does this money come from? Sometimes it seems to appear out of nowhere. In other cases, however, the "money from nowhere" seems very purposeful indeed, sometimes with a clear connection to a deceased loved one.

Dawn B.'s father used to keep a change jar on a shelf in the kitchen, and he would give out coins to Dawn and her mother when they needed them. Even though he has passed away, Dawn believes that he is still doling out coins. "After his death, we started to find dimes all over the house," Dawn says. "We would clean the kitchen counter, come back into the room and find dimes on the counter. They would show up inside jewelry cases, in the car, in the sink, under plants in the house. After I had children, I would find quarters on their high-chair trays, falling out of their walkers, on the car seats. It has been 10 years since my father's death and we still find dimes and quarters that seem to come from nowhere. It has become a sense of peace for my family to know that my father is still here with us in some way."

Michele S. tells of a tradition her "Poppa" had of giving her a dollar every time she did something good. Even after she had grown up and had two children of her own, he continued the tradition, handing them all dollar bills whenever they visited. He would not let the tradition go, it seems, even after his death. "We were preparing to go on a trip to a livestock show in San Antonio, and I asked my daughter to go into the attic and retrieve a box I needed. As she went into the attic to retrieve this box, she found a single ​dollar bill laying on top of it. No one had been up there since we had put away the Christmas decorations on January 1! She brought the dollar down to show me and I knew it was a signal to her from Poppa that he was wishing her luck at the stock show. She returned to the attic and hollered down again. There was another single dollar bill on top of the box! I knew this one was meant for my son from Poppa. Poppa would never have wanted him to feel left out. And apparently, Poppa's dollars brought them very good luck. They both brought home a blue ribbon. Thank you, Poppa."

Helen Q. was sitting in the living room with her adolescent son discussing money - or, rather, the lack of it. "It was a really bad time in my life," she said. "I was crying because I didn't have lunch money for my three sons' school lunches the next day and I didn't know what to do about it. I had decided to just keep them home from school. My son was 12 and hadn't missed a day all year and he was saying, 'I can't miss tomorrow! I just can't!' All I needed was $3 and I couldn't even get that. We heard a noise in the kitchen and we went out to check -- and there were some quarters on the floor. I was afraid to touch them. It was the scariest thing I had ever experienced. I wanted to run out of the house, but my two other kids were in bed asleep. My son finally decided to pick them up. He put them on the table. They were icy cold. There were exactly $3 in quarters! Then my son said, 'It's from Grandma. She always gave me quarters.' I felt so good at that very minute. I knew everything would be okay from then on. We never had to go without again. Life just seemed to come together for us after that night."