Unlucky coins

Coin tosses serve different purposes. In the Philippines, it has been used to break the tie when election candidates receive the same number of votes. Home and office blessings include tossing coins at the end of the ceremony to attract good fortune.

In Rome, millions of tourists toss coins into the famous Trevi Fountain to have their wishes granted.

Legend has it that when a coin is tossed into the 262-year-old fountain

Whether or not most of the 21 million visitors to Rome yearly are returnees who had previously tossed coins into the Trevi that way is unknown. What is known is that 1.4-million euros worth of coins were recovered from the fountain by cleaners in 2022 and the money was donated as usual to the charity group Caritas, AP reports.

Meanwhile, the Chinese toss coins for good luck. One coin tosser, however, seemed to have attracted the opposite after doing so.

The tosser, a passenger on China Southern Airlines flight CZ8805, was arrested by airport police on 6 March for throwing coins into the plane engine for luck.

The plane scheduled to take off in Sanya at 10 a.m. did not fly to Beijing until four hours later, after safety technicians recovered the coins and the flight was cleared for takeoff, according to CNN.

China Southern Airlines warned passengers not to throw coins at the plane as it “poses a threat to aviation safety and will result in different levels of punishment,” CNN reports.