pitching pennies

{{Short description|Game played by throwing coins at a wall}}

{{about|the game of throwing coins against a wall|the game of throwing coins into a box|Penny in the hole}}

File:Mill boys pitching pennies on the Main St. in the afternoon. One said he sweeps. One said 'I was workin' but got canned 'cause I was not fast enough.' The other was 'jest hangin' around.' LOC nclc.03008.jpg

Pitching pennies is a game played with coins. Players take turns to throw a coin at a wall, from some distance away, and the coin which lands closest to the wall is the winner.

In Britain the game is also known as pap, penny up or penny up the wall and it is referred to as pitch-and-toss in Rudyard Kipling's poem If—. In Scotland it is called keeley and chipsy, in Wales nippy, and other names include money up, chucks, quarters, tinks, jingles and jingies.

The history of the game is ancient, and it is known to have been played by Ancient Greek children using bronze coins.{{cite book |last=Gulick |first=Charles Burton |year=1902 |title=The Life of the Ancient Greeks: With Special Reference to Athens |publisher=D. Appleton & Co. |location=New York, NY |oclc=415193 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifeancientgree01guligoog/page/n99 77] |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeancientgree01guligoog}}

In 1998, basketball player Michael Jordan played the game against security guard John Michael Wozniak, an event depicted in the documentary The Last Dance.{{Cite web |date=May 16, 2020 |title=Security Guard John Michael Wozniak Does the Shrug After Playing Michael Jordan in a Coin Toss Game |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_VhhunGOeI |access-date=April 26, 2024 |website=YouTube}}{{Cite web |date=May 5, 2020 |title=How Michael Jordan hustled a security guard (and lost!) when betting on the 'pitching pennies' game |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2020/05/05/how-michael-jordan-hustled-a-security-guard-and-lost-when-betting-on-the-pitching-pennies-game/ |access-date=April 25, 2024 |website=The Chicago Tribune}}