Pitch penny is a pub game. It involves throwing coins across the room and into a hole carved in the seat of a wooden bench. Another version of the game is played in many western pubs. Contestants stand about 20 feet behind a wall and try to throw the pennies as close to the wall as possible without touching it. Another variation is Toad in the Hole in which a dedicated table or box is used instead of a hole carved in a convenient piece of pub furniture. Toad in the Hole has a World Championship held in Lewes

Lewes

Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...

.

History

A version of the game called Chuck-Farthing was played in the United Kingdom. Mentions of the game date back to the 18th century. The rules of the game were described in the 19th century as follows: Each competitor starts with the same number of coins. They pitch their coins one at a time from a mark at a given distance towards a hole in the ground. The competitors are ranked based on how close they come to the hole. The competitor closest to the hole receives all of the coins and proceeds to a second mark nearer to the hole, from which he throws all of the coins at once towards the hole. All of the coins that remain in the hole are his to keep. The remainder of the coins are given to the next closest competitor, and the process is repeated until no coins remain. A variation of the game called Chuck-Hole or Chuck-Penny was played in the same manner, with the exception that if the coins roll outside a ring drawn around the hole, it was declared a "dead heat," and each competitor reclaims his coin. The coins used were usually small denomination, farthings, halfpence, or pennies. Sometimes rough-cast leaden markers called dumps were used.

In popular culture

Pitching Pennies is prominently featured at the beginning of the hit film "The Purple Rose of Cairo

The Purple Rose of Cairo

The Purple Rose of Cairo is a 1985 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. Inspired by Sherlock, Jr., Hellzapoppin, and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, it is the tale of a film character who leaves a fictional film of the same name and enters the real...

" (1985).

See also

• Quarters, a drinking game which involves players bouncing a quarter off a table and into a glass or cup on that table