Why Frank Sinatra Was Buried with 10 Dimes: A Heartbreaking Family Secret
On May 20, 1998, the entertainment world ground to a halt as the ultimate titan of mid-century cool was laid to rest.
The funeral, held at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, was a breathtaking gathering of old Hollywood royalty. Mourners walking the aisles included icons like Tony Bennett, Jack Nicholson, Sophia Loren, and Kirk Douglas, all gathering to say a final goodbye to Frank Sinatra, who had passed away days prior at age 82.
But while the star-studded pews captured the media's attention, the real story of the day was sealed entirely out of sight. Before the lid was lowered on the legendary singer's casket, his children quietly slipped a handful of highly specific, seemingly bizarre personal items into his pockets.
Alongside Tootsie Rolls, cherry Life Savers, a pack of Camel cigarettes, a Zippo lighter, and a bottle of his beloved Jack Daniel's whiskey, Sinatra was buried with a roll of 10 dimes. And the history behind those 10-cent pieces is completely heartbreaking.
Frank Sinatra Jr.'s Kidnapping
To understand why the multi-millionaire pop icon was so intensely obsessed with carrying pocket change, you have to look back to a terrifying winter night in Lake Tahoe in 1963.
On December 8 of that year, Sinatra's 19-year-old son, Frank Sinatra Jr., was abruptly kidnapped at gunpoint from a resort hotel room. The kidnappers - a desperate group looking for a massive payday - blindfolded the young man, threw him into the trunk of a car, and drove him to a hideout in Los Angeles.
When the criminals finally made contact with the elder Sinatra to negotiate a ransom, they established a strict, ruthless rule: all communication had to happen exclusively through public pay phones.
During one agonizing, high-stakes negotiation call, the frantic father ran completely out of coins. The line went dead, plunging Sinatra into a blind panic that his inability to feed the pay phone would cost his son his life. Though Frank Jr. was ultimately returned safely after a $240,000 ransom was paid, the psychological trauma of that dead phone line permanently altered the legendary singer.
The Precaution Inside the Casket
From that terrifying day forward, Frank Sinatra made a solemn vow to himself: he would never get caught anywhere in the world without the immediate ability to make a phone call.
For the next 35 years of his life, through massive stadium tours, high-profile movie sets, and high-society galas, Sinatra refused to leave his house without a roll of dimes tucked into his trousers. Even when pay phone rates eventually increased to a quarter, the crooner rigidly stuck to his exact roll of 10 dimes.
As his daughter Tina Sinatra later revealed on Larry King Live, the habit became an extension of his identity. "He never wanted to get caught not able to make a phone call. It came from Frankie's kidnapping... He always carried 10 dimes."
When a final heart attack took the music legend in mid-May 1998, his family decided that his signature survival precaution should ride with him into the afterlife.
This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 20, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 7:37 AM.