(Not) Making Cents

The other day when I drove into town I felt a sneeze coming on, so I reached into my car’s pull-out coin drawer and grabbed a handkerchief. If I’d wanted a breath mint for my mouth or an eye drop for my contacts I’d reach into the same place. But I wouldn’t find quarters, dimes, nickels, or pennies anywhere in there.  Come to think of it, someday soon I won’t find pennies anywhere at all.

You probably caught the headline in your news feed.  The population growth of U.S. pennies is about to come to a grinding halt.  Our country will no longer mint shiny new “Lincolns” for the first time since their debut in 1787.  Two hundred years and change (ha) is a darned good run for a coin but the penny appears to have been done in by compelling arguments.  One, the production cost is three times the face value.  And two – and perhaps most humiliating – the penny’s face value has descended into, well, obsolescence.

There was a time not so long ago when I wouldn’t pass up a lost penny lying in the street.  In addition to “free money” there was the old adage find a penny pick it up, and all day long you’ll have good luck.  Today you’d better settle for just the luck because you can’t buy anything for pennies anymore.  You’d be better off using them for more practical purposes like checking your tire tread depth or turning screws.  My brother and his wife turned thousands of their pennies into a beautiful, copper-colored floor for their kitchen.

Losing their shine

Speaking of copper (I’m easily distracted today) I had no idea pennies are no longer made of copper.  They’re primarily zinc because of the rising cost of metals (yet they still cost three cents apiece?)  You’d assume quarters, dimes, and nickels were made from an alloy of silver, lead, or aluminum, but – go figure – those coins are primarily copper.

Enough with the facts.  I’m bummed to see the penny put out to pasture.  Along with it goes a ton of childhood memories.  You could roll pennies into coin wrappers and enjoy the thrill of exchanging the whole lot for paper bills at the bank.  You could drop them into handheld banks for untold savings (and my banks were delightfully mechanical).  Finally, you could walk into any 7-Eleven or drug store, hit the candy aisle, and find several “penny candy” choices.  A chunk of Bazooka bubble gum, hard candies, or licorice whips could be purchased for just a few cents back then.

Three cents each… a long, long time ago

Practically speaking I’m on board with the penny’s retirement, because I can’t recall the last time I involved a cent in a financial transaction.  If something costs $9.99, are you telling me you’d reach into your pocket and pay the $9.99 in cash and coin?  Nope, you’d more likely hand over a ten-dollar bill and then what happens?  You get a penny in return.  What are you supposed to do with that?

Certain sayings will have to head out to pasture as well.  An expensive item can no longer be described as “a pretty penny”.  “A penny saved is a penny earned” literally has no value.  A frugal person should now be described as a “quarter-pincher” (in case the nickel and dime are also on life support).  And “pennies from heaven” certainly don’t describe good fortune anymore, even if the song of the same name will continue to be sung.

Do you have one of these?

For my money, I hope car manufacturers continue to include coin drawers in their dashboards.  I keep important things in there and I’d prefer not to change my ways.  Then again maybe I should keep a few pennies in the drawer, if only for my childhood memories.  Those will always have value.

LEGO Notre-Dame de Paris – Update #5

(Read about the start of this “church service” in Highest Chair)

I decided to have my lunch today while working through Bag 8… of 34 bags of pieces.  That was a mistake.  I reached for a LEGO piece, grabbed a little block of cheese instead, and Notre-Dame de Paris almost had cheddar in its walls. I immediately vowed food would go nowhere near the assembly ever again.  It’s unnerving enough putting in the real pieces.

As I worked on the uppermost level you see here I used a little too much force, and a piece in the level below loosened and scampered down into the sanctuary.  I shook, rattled, and rolled the entire cathedral trying to get it out but to now avail.  Just before admitting defeat, the little devil finally emerged (he must’ve gone to confession).  And here’s where I learned an unnerving truth: re-assembling pieces long after you’re supposed to can be near impossible.  I had to tear down an entire wall to get the piece back in place.  We’re working in close quarters here, people.

“LEGO lever”

Today is also a good chapter to point out the tool to the right.  It’s a “LEGO lever” (my words), designed to easily remove a piece from a place it wasn’t meant to go.  I didn’t need my lever through the first seven bags, but today?  Half a dozen times.  My mind’s eye was off just a hair and I kept assembling pieces a quarter or half-inch off from where they were supposed to go.  LEGO lever = life saver.

Pasta noodles?

Bag 8 started slow and repetitious but finished grand and confident.  In fact, I was so full of myself after the mere forty-five minutes of construction, I boldly plunged into Bag 9.  Mistake.  I mean, look at the pieces in this photo!  Are these LEGOs or the little bits of pasta you find in your chicken soup?  Seriously, we may be almost a quarter of the way through the bag count but the pieces are shrinking.  Some Sunday soon the parishioners will look to the heavens and be burned by the giant magnifying glass above them.

Running build time: 4 hrs. 22 min.

Total leftover pieces: 17

Some content sourced from the CNN Business article, “Trump instructs Treasury to halt penny production”, and Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.

Unknown's avatar

Author: Dave

Five hundred posts would suggest I have something to say… This blog was born from a desire to elevate the English language, highlighting eloquent words from days gone by. The stories I share are snippets of life itself, and each comes with a bonus: a dusted-off word I hope you’ll go on to use more often. Read “Deutschland-ish Improvements” to learn about my backyard European wish list. Try “Slush Fun” for the throwback years of the 7-Eleven convenience store. Or drink in "Iced Coffee" to discover the plight of the rural French cafe. On the lighter side, read "Late Night Racquet Sports" for my adventures with our latest moth invasion. As Walt Whitman said, “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Here then, my verse. Welcome to Life In A Word.

24 thoughts on “(Not) Making Cents”

  1. I’m fond of pennies so it stands to reason they’d be on The Donald’s hit list. Anything I’m for he is against.

    Laughing out loud about: I reached for a LEGO piece, grabbed a little block of cheese instead, and Notre-Dame de Paris almost had cheddar in its walls. Too funny, so believable.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I think the penny’s time has been coming for a while now. The only currency our kids use anymore is electronic, and they cringe at the thought of writing a check. As for the cheese in the cathedral wall, it was the most awkward mid-air pause I’ve experienced since starting the build.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. The “penny” sayings are nostalgic for me; a throwback to much more innocent times. I’m as sorry to see them go as I am the coin itself.

      Like

  3. I think all coins are soon going to be on their way out, along with paper money. Bridge tolls, parking meters and even vending machines no longer need coins or even paper money.

    Great work on the LEGO, I got a lot of use out of that tools myself.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I agree, Andrew, the days of cash and coin are numbered. I struggle with how we’ll accommodate tipping however. I hate the whole “choose from the screen” approach. Handing someone a few bills is a much more personal and meaningful exchange.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I agree with you on the $2 bill, Neil, and I’m surprised they’re still being printed. They’re a novelty more than anything else. I have one here in my office and it’ll just sit gathering dust instead of being spent like it was intended to be.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. Sorry, had to laugh. Looks like you were doing your own “renovation” to put that little piece back in again. I would think that once you have some of those pieces snapped in place, it’s hard to pry them apart, yes?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It’s a great point. LEGO pieces usually fit together such that they can’t move. Not so with Notre-Dame de Paris. Some pieces are delicately attached to the ones below, so the structure gets more fragile as I go higher. At some point everything will be secured from above but for now things are very much “under construction”.

      Liked by 1 person

  7. Dave, I had heard about getting rid of the pennies earlier this week, but you had some facts in here that I didn’t know. Back when I was waitressing at the diner through my college years, I also had to run the cash register. A favorite customer of mine collected the Bicentennial quarters (remember them?) He told me to hold onto the wheat pennies as one day they would be worth something. I have a small box of them in my old desk downstairs. One day I need to go through them and see if they have the criteria that collectors value. Canadians quit making the penny many years ago but they also have the very cool “Loonies” and “Toonies” ($1.00 coin and $2.00 coin respectively). Up until COVID, I would pick up pennies and make a wish on them. But germaphobia surrounding handling money during COVID, causes me to think twice now. So does the proprietor of a business where you are paying cash round up or down – a moral dilemma to be sure. 🙂 You are making good progress … lots of leftovers and good thing the cheddar did not wedge itself into the Cathedral!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I could’ve spent this week’s words on nothing but the history of the U.S. penny, because there’s a lot to it. I’d be interested to know what kind of value your “wheats” have (I’ve only seen a few myself). It was also interesting to learn the half-penny was proposed but never produced. Like you, I’ve never been a fan of rounding up at the register, even when charity is involved. I prefer charity on my own time. But I did like the “take a penny, leave a penny” plates you used to see. Those certainly spoke to more innocent days.

      Liked by 1 person

      2. Good catch – thanks! I confused the half-cent with the mill (tenth of a cent), which is a measure on paper but was never minted.

        Like

      3. There are different serial numbers and such on some of the wheat pennies. I looked a while ago and it depends where they were minted too and the older the better, but those wheat pennies meeting certain criteria can garner thousands of dollars. I like the “take a penny, leave a penny” plates too – it’s the little things in life that make a big difference sometimes.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Canada discontinued making the penny in 2012. We did not fall apart as a nation because of it… we have other ways of doing that…

    I read that 500 billion US pennies have been minted and as of 2023, 140 billion were still in circulation. Many of the rest are being held as collectibles or stored in piggy banks and jars. “Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” Trump said. I enjoy his sense of humor. This isn’t the first time your country has thought it was time to retire the penny.

    That LEGO lever is a lifesaver! I have used it many times. Question – when you open a new bag of pieces, do you sort them in some manner? I sort by colour, then shape within the colour. Some of my family use the ‘rummage’ system. No sorting, just dump out one bag then search and rescue on a piece by piece need. One of my family members made the mistake of opening all the bags at once and dumping them out, then rummaging. They said that was a huge mistake!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I had no idea the Canadian penny was already retired, but it’s encouraging to hear life has gone on uninterrupted. The amount of money lost at U.S. mints over the continued production of the U.S. penny is appalling. Raises the question yet again: Why isn’t the U.S. running its government like a business? At least it appears we’re headed more in that direction in the next few years. As for the LEGO build, my approach is “rummage”. I’m an organization freak but for some reason I’m satisfied to simply create piles and search. Having said that, I do corral all of the pieces in a given step before I proceed with that step. Those are the heart-stopping moments where I wonder if LEGO left out a piece 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  9. It takes a dime to buy what a penny bought in 1965 and almost a quarter to match the value of a penny in 1935, so absent a massive currency revaluation project, I say it’s about time.

    I read a really deep dive into this topic awhile back, and the problem is that there is a constant demand for pennies in making change, but then they go immediately out of circulation via jars, dresser drawers and couch cushions. The article tried to find the person or office with the authority to cancel the penny, but everyone pointed somewhere else. I guess now we know where, well, the buck stops.

    And c’mon Dave, no food in church! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. The quarter and the half-dollar are the only coins that say “money” to me anymore. The lesser three just slowly accumulate until I convert them into more useful denominations. I never considered the chain of command for the management of our currency but it’s apparently a top-down decision. And yes, shame on me for snacking in cathedral. I can’t even admit to a single time I ever did that in real church (not even a breath mint). My son and his family attend a more progressive church and I won’t lie; passing by the coffee bar on the way to the sanctuary, and then seeing several cups raised and lowered during the service was a bit of a shock. What’s next, popcorn?

      Liked by 1 person

  10. So this makes me wonder, I know stuff would be priced at $9.99 to make people think it was less expensive that $10. Will people just call a spade a spade now?

    However, I heard a young woman the other day say to her friend, “It’s $14,” when something was $14.99. I wanted to facepalm her.

    Like

    1. The penny may disappear but I expect $0.99 pricing to continue uninterrupted. We’re used to it anyway, right? An even $14 looks strange to me, kind of like when my total at the grocery store adds up to a whole-dollar amount. Me and the cashier look at each other like, “How did that happen?”

      Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.