Your opinions cost a nickel now.
“A penny for your thoughts…” Not for much longer, as the penny is going away. Here’s my two cents on the matter.
First, a bit of personal history on the penny. I grew up in a family that rarely played board or card games, but when we did, my mom kept a tub of pennies to use as markers. Win or lose, we put our pennies back into the container for another day.
My late sister-in-law loved to twist the ol’ adage about pennies, and she’d say, “Find a penny, pick it up. All day long, have a penny.” True that! I don’t actually believe a found penny gives me luck, but I must harbor a little superstition as I am compelled to pick up the abandoned coins. I feel I am tempting fate to leave it; as though I boast I am so wealthy I’ll never need a penny and the universe might wish to show me otherwise. Could picking up or leaving behind a penny be a clue to a person’s personality, similar to chocolate versus vanilla, or Coke versus Pepsi? Does the discovery of a wheat penny in your change give a tiny jolt of serotonin, and do you hold on to it for unknown reasons? Something to ponder.
Over time, those little coins do amount to value, albeit slowly. Our middle child takes after my husband, as both are sharp-eyed and extremely capable of locating any dropped small item. Daughter was famous for spotting coins, which she’d bring home and deposit in her large Polar Bear bank. Years later, when it was full, she finally opened it, and it contained over $60 in coins.
Pennies have had little purchasing power for decades, and now a penny holds such little value that often a small dish of them sits at a cash register. It’s been years since I visited a slot machine, so I’m unsure if penny slots still exist. I haven’t spotted a gumball machine in a long time, either, but if they exist, I’m sure they don’t accept pennies. Penny candy stores vanished decades ago. I recall the neighborhood kids walking together to the penny candy store where we voiced our choices to a very patient proprietor who urged us not to press our noses against the glass case. He’d deposit gumballs, paper strips of candy dots, bull’s-eyes, Bit-o-Honeys, etc., into a tiny brown paper sack. A quarters-worth of candy nearly filled it.
Consider the merchandising of pennies: the machines that accept a penny and press it into a souvenir, or the cardboard holders for pennies. I hate to see those disappear as I have a few of those flattened pennies and the penny holders as well. I recall sorting through my father’s change in search of one I needed to complete my collection. It seems a shame that numismatics, which can be an inexpensive childhood hobby, will disappear, but as Venmo and Zelle take the place of the exchange of cash, who will carry bills, much less coins anymore? Will small coin purses become quaint antiques to some future generation? What will the new proof sets of coins look like without a penny? That tiny brown circle appeared out of place nestled among the silver coins, but still.
When our children were young, we visited Washington, D.C. and toured the landmarks. The Lincoln Memorial is impressive, and I handed each child a penny and photographed them standing in front of the statue, arms outstretched and holding their pennies. As his Secretary of State, William Seward said when Lincoln passed, “Now he belongs to the ages.” Lincoln doesn’t need his face on currency to be remembered, but I regret our greatest president’s coin memorial passing away. Now the Lincoln penny belongs to the ages, too.
As I have read that in comparison with the penny, the nickel is more costly to mint; I consider retiring the nickel to be more logical than eliminating the penny. Consider this: before you go dig up a nickel to look at it, do you know whose face is on it? (I admit, I needed to look for a nickel myself!) Thomas Jefferson. I’m not implying that Jefferson is less important, merely that if fiscal responsibility is the goal, then I think Tom should be the one to drop.
Will pennies become a delightful oddity we come across? I inherited my mother’s tub of pennies. Perhaps years in the future, I’ll scatter a few for someone to find. Might some child find one and ask their parent, “What’s this?!”
Do you pick up pennies? Hoard the wheat ones? And would you vote to keep or eliminate the penny? Put your two-cents worth in the comment section!
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