I was standing outside of my office, having a cigarette, and playing around with the change in my pocket. (I’m a fidgety Italian; therefore, I must be doing something with my hands at all times.)
I pulled out one of the pennies I had gotten in change at some point, and realized that it was a newly minted 2001 penny.
And how amazing a thing it is.
I thought about how little people expected any such thing to ever exist. We had been told in our optimistic science fiction that we would be using ‘credits’ based entirely upon electronic data. We had been told in our pessimistic science fiction that we would be using ‘nuyen’. We had been told by economic doom-sayers that inflation would mean eliminating the smaller elements of coinage- certainly the penny, possibly the nickel. We had been told of societal doom-sayers that the chance of civilization surviving past the turn of the century was nearly impossible.
Yet there I stood, holding a penny. A newly minted 2001 penny.
If you should chance upon a new penny, stop and look at it. Marvel at the minature bas-relief you hold in your hand. Unworn, the details upon the picture are amazing. One can see the weary bags under Lincoln’s eyes from the stress of the Civil War. The lines upon his faces, the wrinkles upon his jacket, even the buttonhole upon his lapel- small details that make this a piece of art, art destined to be eroded and worn until he is a silhouette, a shade of history upon a tarnished piece of copper. But new- one can count the steps on the Memorial on the reverse.
Of course, you can’t buy a damned thing with it. Hell, you need two of them to even put your opinion in. But there it is, still existant.
I wonder if math grad students in LeConte Hall at USC (that’s South Carolina, btw) still roll pennies down that long corridor. We used to compete to see who could roll them the furthest.
I still roll them down long aisles in Wal-Mart Superstores and similar places. Seems to be a penny’s highest and best use, these days. Also annoys the hell out of my wife, for bonus points.
Even with sales tax, there seems to be little point in keeping the little buggers around: stores could include pennies in posted prices, but round the result of any cash transaction to the nearest nickle, while charging exactly when checks and credit cards are used.
According to legend, the cast was changed to make Lincoln’s beard and hair shorter after 1968. I checked it out once, and it seemed to be so, but pre-1968 pennies don’t get around much in 2K1.
I really have a fondness for coins of the past, too. The Buffalo Nickel, the Mercury Dime, the Liberty Quarter…
I wish some of these would come back. We’ve settled down to prosaic images of presidents and their homes, when our coinage used to be so much more artistic. A parallel, maybe - as the century progressed did we settle down and unconsciously translate our mechanical, technological, utilitarian world into an equivalent form of exchange for goods and services?
Why is it that our most revered Presidents are on the lowest denominations of coins (and currency)? Lincoln on the penny (and $5), Washington on the quarter (and $1), Jefferson on the nickel (and $2)?
People occasionally still talk about a cashless society. It’ll never happen. As long as bribes need to be made, bets paid off, and people paid with non-taxed money, there will always be a need for real tender.
For “extra” penny fun when you have no squashing machines available. Take a penny minted after 1982 and put a few scratches on one side. Place in a small bowl filled with vinegar for a week or two. The vinegar will dissolve the zinc core and leave only the copper plating. You have a hollow, and extremely fragile penny.
I can remember getting Indian head pennines, silver dimes and quarters in over the counter change. That minting series was some of the most beautiful coinage to pass through the hands of a living being.
How many pennies fit in a five gallon water bottle? I on my way to filling a second one.
I love pennies. a couple of years ago I took a 100 dollar bill to the bank and brought back 10,000 pennies. Opened them all up and dumped them on the bed. Made a huge pile, weighed a ton and smelled like copper. Spent the next few days going through them 1 by 1. Filled all the holes in my penny book from 1959 to present. Also found 9 wheatbacks and a penny from Bermuda, wierd. Spent the next three years with a pocketfull of pennies and everytime I bought something I used 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 pennies so that I wouldn’t get any back. I finished late last summer. I miss them…
Maybe if I was of the Tattoo variety, but having more in common with Michael Jordan all I was able to do was dive in with my hands, grab a whole handfull and let them drop. My hands smelled like pennies for months.
