I was tearing out a rotten window sill on a house from the mid-90s this afternoon and stumbled across something I’ve never seen in twenty years of framing. Right in the middle of the rough opening, someone had driven a rusty nail straight through the center of a Canadian penny. It was embedded deep into the wood, and the way the grain had splintered around it made it look like it had been there since the day the house was dried in. The rest of the work on this place is absolute garbage, so I know for a fact they weren't using the coin as some kind of makeshift washer. It’s too specific for that. The penny was flipped so the Canada text was right at the top, clearly a deliberate move. I’ve heard of guys leaving a coin for good luck or as a signature, but finding a random cent from up north in a house down here feels like a specific calling card. There was some white residue or old drywall mud caked all over the area, which made it blend in until I started scraping. It’s kind of a relief to find something interesting after a long day of dealing with shoddy craftsmanship. Usually, I’m just pulling out bent nails and fixing out-of-plumb studs, so this was a nice change of pace. I guess I’ll keep the tradition going and hide something behind the new casing before I button it all back up.
Ran into a strange calling card while replacing a window sill today
Sep 11, 2026
Last reply: 6 hours ago
4 Replies
I ran into a similar situation about six years ago while I was ripping out some water-damaged 2x6 framing on a coastal cottage. I was using my 12-inch Milwaukee Sawzall to clear out the header when I felt the blade kick. Tucked right behind the jack stud was a 1982 Susan B. Anthony dollar, held in place by a single galvanized roofing nail. The house was built by a crew out of New Jersey, and I later found out the lead carpenter did that on every single job to 'pay the house taxes' in advance.
It’s funny how those little tokens show up in the middle of a mess. Whenever I’m dealing with out-of-plumb walls or headers that are somehow an eighth-inch short, finding a coin makes the frustration melt away for a minute. I’ve started doing it myself now. Before I slap the pre-hung door in or finish the casing, I usally tuck a current-year nickel behind the shim. It’s a way of leaving a mark that isn’t just a Sharpie signature on a stud.
I’ve seen this more often than you’d think, but in my neck of the woods, it’s usually less about a 'signature' and more about a lazy fix for a shim. Back when I was doing a lot of structural repair on 90s builds in the suburbs, I found a couple of dimes and a nickel stacked and nailed through to level out a window buck. The guys on that crew probably didn't have any cedar shims left in the truck and just reached into thier pockets to get the job done so they could head home.
That white residue you mentioned sounds like it could be old caulking or maybe even some cheap plumbers putty they used to try and seal the gap before the casing went on. When I’m finishing a rough opening now, I stick to my FatMax and proper shims, but I can’t help but laugh when I find 'pocket change' structural work. It’s definitely a weird feeling to find a Canadian coin that far south, though. Makes you wonder if the lead framer was a snowbird or just someone who’d recently been up to Ontario for a fishing trip.
Found a silver half-dollar once behind a baseboard while I was chasing a leak in my first fixer-upper. I ended up taping it back in place before I nailed the new trim down. Felt wrong to take it. Now, whenever I'm closing up a wall or a soffit, I'll drop a coin in there myself. It's better than what I usally leave behind by mistake. Last time I finished a framing job, I realized I’d sealed my favorite 16-foot Stanley tape inside the header. Some guy is gonna have a real lucky day when he renovates that kitchen in 2040.
Update: That point about the coins being used as lazy shims got me thinking, so I checked the level on that sill. It was way off, so it definatly wasn't a fix! I decided to follow the lead of the guy who tapes his coins back in and left a 2024 quarter in the frame. Do you guys ever find non-coin items, like old newspapers or notes, in the studs?
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