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Sep 14, 2012

"While you have a thing it can be taken from you ... but when you give it, you have given it. No robber can take it from you. It is yours then for ever when you have given it. It will be yours always. That is to give." --James Joyce

Free Money Day: Giving Is Common Cents

Last year on September 15, people at over 60 locations worldwide handed out their own money to complete strangers. Participants committed to give two small coins or banknotes to strangers, asking these strangers to pass one of them on to someone else -- as a symbolic gesture, not a donation. Quirky? Yes. Likely to elicit questions and dialogue? They hoped so. The idea was for this simple exercise to act as an interruption to our trained response to the prospect of 'free money'. Free Money Day 2012 will again take place on September 15 all around the world. This article explores the intriguing philosophies and events that inspired this unusual experiment in unconditional giving.