Coins were placed on the eyes of the dead for two reasons: a practical one and a spiritual one. The practical purpose was to keep the eyelids closed during the hours after death. The spiritual purpose traces back to ancient Greek mythology, where the dead needed payment to cross into the afterlife. Over centuries, these two motivations blended together into a widespread burial custom that persisted well into the modern era.
The Greek Myth Behind the Payment
In ancient Greek belief, the souls of the dead had to cross a river to reach the underworld. The ferryman who carried them across was named Charon, and he demanded a fare. A coin placed in the mouth or near the body of the deceased, known as Charon’s obol, served as that payment. Without it, the soul risked being stranded on the riverbank, unable to reach the afterlife.
This wasn’t a fringe superstition. Charon’s obol was a standard part of Greek burial preparation, widely practiced and deeply embedded in the culture’s understanding of death. The coin didn’t need to be valuable. An obol was one of the smallest denominations in Greek currency. What mattered was the gesture: equipping the dead for what came next. This idea of preparing the soul for its journey proved remarkably durable, influencing burial customs in cultures far beyond Greece for centuries afterward.
Why Eyelids Don’t Stay Closed on Their Own
There’s a straightforward biological problem with dead bodies: the eyelids tend to drift open. In life, muscles actively hold the eyelids in position, and blinking keeps the surface of the eye moist. After death, all of that stops. The muscles relax, tear production ceases, and the eyes begin to dehydrate. Without tears and blinking, the corneal surface is exposed to air, and within a few hours the tissue starts to visibly deteriorate.
Rigor mortis complicates things further. It appears in the small muscles of the face first, typically around two hours after death, before spreading to the hands, arms, and eventually the legs over the next six to eight hours. Once rigor sets in, whatever position the eyelids happen to be in becomes locked in place. If no one has closed them by then, they can stay partially open for the full duration of rigor, which lasts roughly 36 hours before the muscles relax again. A coin, with its modest weight, provided just enough pressure to hold the lid down during that critical early window.
From Mouths to Eyes
The Greeks typically placed coins in the mouth, not on the eyes. The shift to the eyes happened gradually as the custom spread through Europe. By the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly in England and other European countries, coins were placed directly on the eyelids of the deceased to keep them closed. The spiritual symbolism and the physical function had merged into a single act.
Archaeological evidence shows this practice in detail. At the New York African Burial Ground, researchers found burials with copper coins in the eye sockets, identified as George II and George III halfpennies. Interestingly, all the burial sites associated with coins at that location belonged to older adults from the late 18th century, suggesting the custom may have been adopted toward the end of that period and reserved for people at the farther end of the life cycle. The placement of coins on the eyes there appeared to serve a dual purpose: both keeping the eyes closed and carrying forward the older spiritual tradition of providing for the dead.
Superstitions About Open Eyes
Beyond the mythology and the biology, there was a powerful social anxiety about leaving a dead person’s eyes open. Many cultures believed that if the eyes of a corpse remained open, the dead person was “looking for” someone to take with them. An open-eyed corpse could bring death to whoever it seemed to gaze upon. Some spiritual traditions held that the soul could not fully depart the body if the eyes weren’t closed. Others interpreted open eyes as a sign that the person had seen their death coming, or worse, that they had died in fear or horror.
These beliefs gave the simple act of closing the eyes an urgency that went beyond appearance. Coins offered a reliable, hands-off solution. You could place them, step back, and trust that the weight would do its work while rigor mortis set in. For families preparing a body at home, which was the norm for most of human history, this was both emotionally reassuring and practically useful.
What Funeral Homes Use Today
Modern morticians no longer rely on coins. Instead, they use small plastic devices called eye caps: thin, semi-spherical shells covered in tiny barbs or spikes. These are placed under the eyelids before embalming, and the small spikes grip the inner surface of the lid, holding it securely in place. They’re also used after eye removal for organ donation. In some cases, morticians supplement the caps with adhesive to ensure the lids stay closed throughout the viewing and burial process.
The underlying problem is the same one that ancient Greeks solved with an obol and Victorian families solved with a halfpenny. The body doesn’t cooperate after death, and the people left behind need the face to look peaceful. The tools have changed, but the impulse hasn’t. Closing the eyes of the dead is one of the oldest and most universal human gestures, and for most of history, a small coin was the simplest way to make it stick.