Do you pick up the pennies?

Have you noticed how often you see coins on the ground these days? Most people can't be bothered to pick up the coppers. Should this be a cause for concern?

I'm not sure, but what I do know is that one of the more heated family arguments we had at Christmas was debating the answer to this question: "What's the lowest value coin you would stoop to pick up these days?"

My sister-in-law said she would always pick up any coin she saw on the floor, no matter how low its worth. It was not so much what she said but how she said it that I found aggravating, as if it was criminal even to be debating the point.

She is of the view that to show a disregard for small coins is to show a lack of respect for money. Such lack of respect for money embodies the kind of attitude displayed by people who get things too easily.

I understand this view and have some sympathy for it. But I worry also whether it is right, conversely, to hold money in such high regard that we could appear to be worshipping it.

A few years ago I visited the Royal Mint at Llantrisant in Wales. What struck me most about the visit was that the production of coins is nothing more than a metal bashing exercise. The floor of the factory was strewn with coins.

It made me realise that coins are really tools for making things happen. Small change is just that and no, we shouldn't chuck it around, but I don't think we should be condemned either for leaving it on the floor if that's what we choose to do.

We were playing cards for money, something we often do at Christmas and I had the apparently outlandish idea of playing for silver rather than the usual coppers. We used to play for coppers when I was a kid. A game of New Market would require twopence per hand when we used a ha'penny for the pot, the face card, the odd card and the kitty.

The amount rose with decimalisation but it seems to have stuck at 4p per hand since the 1970s. This year we compromised on 8p per hand but it still did not make up for those 1970s values. In the same time frame a packet of crisps has risen more than 10 fold from less than 5p to 50p. Logic would dictate that, even were we to chip in 20p per hand, it would still be a relatively smaller stake than that made in my childhood.

I think this explains why the game is not as much fun as it was. Of course, it wouldn't do to look as if we were gambling fanatics but gambling - the possibility of winning or losing - is where you draw the thrill. I would argue that there has to be the possibility of some pleasure or pain to make it meaningful but I was overruled I fear and my suggestion dismissed as typical of the lose morals evident in today's society. I feel branded.