TARGET 141027

NOTE TO VIEWERS: This target was sent in by Ray McClure. It is a very excellent target and I really wanted to use it as a Target of the Week, but as you know, the TOTW targets need feedback for all levels of viewers. I could not find any feedback on this target that would satisfy tasking intermediate, advanced, or professional viewers, so am using it as a "pollution proofing" exercise. Many thanks to Ray for the target. I think it is a great one.

MAYBE MONEY DOES GROW ON TREES

^{A close-up of a money tree}

Did your mother ever tell you, ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees!’, in an attempt to curb your spendthrift ways? Well, maybe she was wrong. There are places in England where money seems to do just that.

^{An easy to reach branch}

The people of Yorkshire, in the north of England are renowned for "being careful with their money". Well, this localized stereotype may not always be fair because there is evidence that on occasion they are willing to throw caution to the wind and hammer their low denomination coinage into trees.

Perhaps it is to simply bring good luck or perhaps people believe that by leaving a coin in the bark of the tree they may have it returned to them many times over. Whatever the origins of this strange habit, there are a number of trees in the United Kingdom that bear the financial hopes of many.

Some suggest that the reason money is pushed into the bark is more than just a desire to increase one’s wealth. It is thought by some that the amount of coins pushed in by an individual may result in them producing the same number of children, and possibly increase their chances of finding a partner to do so. For some, it is most certainly just a family tradition. As you can tell by these pictures, the custom has been going on for many, many generations.

Close up it seems as if the coins have almost merged with the wood, but that is the effect of the weather upon the metal and the fact that the bark will grow over things stuck into it in an attempt to heal the wound.

The tree itself, though long since alive, has come to bear a marked resemblance to the torso of some sort of lizard, the coins becoming its scales. It is almost Arthurian in its strangeness. The tree probably died of copper poisoning. Let's just hope that the people's chances for lots of money or many children didn't die with it.

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Many thanks to Ray McClure for this target.