Penny candy, penny whistles, good luck pennies, in for a penny in for a pound, pennywise and pound foolish – the lowly penny has been one of those items that’s been a fixture in everyday life for more than two centuries. Children learn to count using pennies. The Bass Shoe Company created the penny loafer, a casual men’s shoe with a divided leather strap that could hold an inserted penny. Finding a heads-up penny on the ground brings good luck; a tails-up penny means bad luck, at least for the day it was found.
The penny is so ubiquitous that it’s hard to think of a world without the copper-colored coins. Last week, the final penny was struck by the U.S. Mint following a decision by the Trump Administration to cease production, ironically, to save money. It costs more than three cents to manufacture one penny but, although pennies will not be produced anymore, it is estimated that 300 billion pennies still are in circulation. Maybe not exactly “in” circulation. Pennies may be squirreled away in piggy banks or Mason jars, car seats or sofa cushions, tossed into wishing wells and public fountains or pressed into long oval shapes in carnival souvenir booths.
The history of the penny dates to the founding of the nation, when the penny was a larger-sized coin, with the imprint of a woman with flowing hair. Designs varied across the years, with the Indian Head penny produced from 1859 to 1909. The first Lincoln penny was created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. The obverse (front) side had the familiar Lincoln head silhouette, with curved wheat stalks on the reverse (back) side. That design continued until 1959 when the reverse design was changed to depict the Lincoln Memorial on the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth. Fifty years later, in 2009, the coin was altered again, to honor Lincoln’s birth bicentennial. In 2010, the reverse became the Union Shield, the last design for the penny and again commemorating President Lincoln’s legacy.
Pennies were made of copper, or copper-plated zinc, except in 1943, the only year that pennies were made of zinc-plated steel. Copper was needed for the war effort, so the switch to a different metal made cents (sic) but, according to local lore, a few copper pennies were accidentally struck at the beginning of 1943, and the errors were given to Members of Congress. Whether true or not, 1943 steel pennies rarely are found today. At a coin collectors’ shop a few years ago, the asking price was $42. A copper 1943 penny, if one exists, would be worth $100,000 or more, according to some expert numismatists (coin collectors).
Ceasing production of the familiar one-cent coin will have little effect on the full faith and credit of the United States which, increasingly, seems at risk on international markets, and it won’t lower the cost of living or grocery prices, promised by Donald Trump during last year’s presidential campaign. Pennies still will be legal tender in the United States but will become scarcer over time, as the use of coins and federal reserve notes continues to transition to a predominately cashless society. Some stores have posted signs asking for exact change “due to a shortage of pennies” or have dispensed with cash transactions altogether. One thing won’t change -the title of this column!
