Pennies May Soon Be a Thing of the Past

http://articles.news.aol.com/ ^ | 4 3 06 | JEFF DONN

[freepatriot32]

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (July 2) - In this village settled by thrifty Pilgrims, you can still buy penny candy for a penny, but tourist Alan Ferguson doubts he'll be able to dig any 1-cent pieces out of his pockets.

He rarely carries pennies because "they take up a lot of room for how much value they have." Instead, like so many other Americans, he dumps his pennies into a bucket back home in Sarasota, Fla.

Pity the poor penny!

It packs so little value that merry kids chuck pennies into the fountain near the candy store, just to watch them splash and sink. Stray pennies turn up everywhere: in streets, cars, sofas, beaches, even landfills with the rest of the garbage.

A penny bought a loaf of bread in early America, but it's a loafer of a coin in an age of inflation and affluence, slowly sliding into monetary obsolescence.

For the first time, the U.S. Mint has said pennies are costing more than 1 cent to make this year, thanks to higher metal prices. "The penny is going to disappear soon unless something changes in the economics of commodities," says Robert Hoge, an expert on North American coins at The American Numismatic Society.

That very idea of spending 1.2 cents to put 1 cent into play strikes many people as "faintly ridiculous," says Jeff Gore, of Elkton, Md., founder of a little group called Citizens for Retiring the Penny.

And yet, while its profile of Abe Lincoln marks time in the bottom of drawers and ashtrays, the penny somehow carries a reassuring symbolism that Americans hesitate to forsake.

"It's part of their past, so they want to keep it in their future," says Dave Harper, editor of Numismatic News.

Gallup polling has shown that two-thirds of Americans want to keep the penny coin. There's even a pro-penny lobby called Americans for Common Cents.

The Mint's announcement is a milestone, though, because coins have historically cost less to produce than the face value paid by receiving banks. They are moneymakers for the government.

U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, of Arizona, wants to keep it that way. But when he asked Congress to phase out the penny five years ago he failed; he intends to try again this year. If he fails again, he joked recently, he may open a business melting down pennies to resell the metal.

The idea of a penniless society began to gain currency in 1989 with a bill in Congress to round off purchases to the nearest nickel. It was dropped, but the General Accounting Office in a 1996 report unceremoniously acknowledged that some people consider the penny a "nuisance coin."

In 2002, Gallup polling found that 58 percent of Americans stash pennies in piggy banks, jars, drawers and the like, instead of spending them like other coins. Some people eventually redeem them at banks or coin-counting machines, but 2 percent admit to just plain throwing pennies out!

"Today it's a joke. It's outlived its usefulness," says Tony Terranova, a New York City coin dealer who paid $437,000 for a 1792 penny prototype in what is believed to be the denomination's highest auction price.

"Most people find them annoying when they get them in change," he adds. "I've seen people get pennies in change and actually throw them on the floor."

Not Edmond Knowles, of Flomaton, Ala.

No, he hoarded pennies for nearly four decades as a hobby. He ended up with more than 1.3 million of them - 4.5 tons - in several drums in his garage. His bank refused to take them all at once, but he finally found a coin-counting company, Coinstar, that wanted the publicity.

In the biggest known penny cash-in ever, they sent an armored truck last year, loaded his pennies, and then watched helplessly as it sank into the mud in his yard. They needed a tow truck to redeem it. "I still got a few ruts in the yard," says Knowles.

His years of collecting brought him about $1 a day - $13,084.59 in all.

A penny saved was a penny earned for Knowles, but he took another lesson from the experience, too: "I don't save pennies anymore. It's too big a problem getting rid of them."

Another problem: deciding what to make the penny from. Copper, bronze and zinc have been used, even steel in 1943 when copper was desperately needed for the World War II effort. In 1982, zinc replaced most of the penny's copper to save money, but rising zinc prices are now bedeviling the penny again.

"I'm very surprised they haven't gone to plastic," muses Bill Johnson, a wheat-penny collector who owns the Plimoth Candy Co. (It uses an old spelling of Plymouth.)

Even in his shop where a penny still buys a Tootsie Roll, he leaves a few pennies scattered on top of the cash register for customers like Lindsay Taylor, of Westwood, who is buying $1.78 worth of candy.

She is carrying no pennies because her sons have taken them for their old-fashioned piggy banks, which automatically flip coins inside. Her 2-year-old, she says, "just loves pushing the button."

Others have their own reasons for valuing the humble coin, which borrowed its colloquial name from British currency. The "cent" - meaning 1 percent of a dollar - has been struck every year except 1815, when the United States ran out of British-made penny blanks in the wake of the War of 1812.

"It's part of the fabric of American culture," says David Early, a spokesman for the government's Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

The penny took on the profile of President Lincoln, beloved as the Union's savior during the Civil War, on the centennial of his birth in 1909. The first ones carried ears of wheat on the tails side, but the Lincoln memorial has replaced those. Four new tails designs with themes from Lincoln's life are planned for 2009, with a fifth permanent one afterward to summarize his legacy.

This redesign, the first major one since 1959, has heartened penny lovers.

Those who want to keep the penny coin include small merchants who prefer cash transactions, contractors who help supply pennies, and consumer advocates who fear rounding up of purchases.

We think the penny is important as a hedge to inflation," says director Mark Weller of Americans for Common Cents. "Any time you have more accurate pricing, consumers benefit."

Joining with the lobby, the wireless network Virgin Mobile USA recently launched a save-the-penny campaign. Its penny truck will travel cross-country to gather pennies for charity.

Scores of charities esteem the penny, which many Americans donate without a second thought. Like shouts in a playground, pennies can multiply quickly.

"People don't like carrying them around, so we dump them into the nearest bowl," says Teddy Gross, who founded the Penny Harvest charity drive in New York City schools. "By the end of any given year, most Americans have got a stash of capital which is practically useless, but it's within easy reach of a young person."

Last year, his children raked in 55 million pennies, which had to be redeemed with help from the Brink's security company. They also bagged about 200,000 spare nickels.

By the way, the Mint says nickels are also costing more to produce than they're worth. Pity the poor nickel?

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[Vectorian]

A real penny:

[Dutch Boy]

I pick up pennies too. I'm not sure how much I've actually picked up but it was more than I woke up with. Just like tax returns. If they were cut by 0.0001% that's 0.0001% more that I get to keep.

[Dustbunny]

We save all our pennies. We now roll them, a lesson learned when we moved back home when we retired and discovered that the jars were extremely heavy. Took forever to roll them, they paid for our gas for the trip home.

Also save nickles and dimes. Some day we just may cash them in but for now they sit rolled up in a box.

[ops33]

The military has been doing the same thing at commissaries and exchanges overseas for years. It cost too much to ship the pennies over so they have been rounding up and down; doesn't seem to have caused much of a problem.

[sergeantdave]

Everyone can make their own pennies.

Draw circles on pieces of paper. Write "1¢" on the front of the cicle. On the back write: "This note is legal tender for all debts, private and public." Add in: "This note is redeemable for squat, backed by the full faith and credit of nothing."

Write your name and address on the back. When people knock on your door to redeem them, get a piece of paper out and write: "My reserve note."

Wait a minute. This is already done. Never mind...

[Zacs Mom]

Turn up yiur speakers for a great rendition of Frank Sinature singing the old classic,
"Pennies From Heaven For You And For Me.".

[Dyslexic Mom]

I roll ALL change. I save each coin in a box/bag/jar just for that coin (saves a lot of sorting later) and when I have a substantial amount, out come the rolls in front of the TV. The 'cashed in' bills go into my 'mad money' stash and I have purchased (over the years) 2 computer tables, a laptop computer and various 'toys' for MY toy room (old comic books and stuff from eBay I just HAD to have...).

I also have saved (in coin tubes) wheat pennies, 1 penny a year from each year since my husband was born, a quarter a year since they switched from silver (some day I plan to buy back to 1959), various odds and ends, and -of course- a book, a map, and a set of tubes just for the 'state' quarters.

We also buy 'double struck proof sets' straight from the mint. These are BEAUTIFUL... We give these as gifts as well (birth year for family babbies, grad year for grads, etc...).

We're a bit on the pack rat side... but I love my toys.

[Filo]

The penny should be abandoned as well as the dollar bill. Replace the latter with the dollar coins and we'll all be set for a couple of decades more. Then we can target the nickel! :)

[Larry Lucido]

Pennies May Soon Be a Thing of the Past

I got plenty of pennies. I wouldn't mind a few dollars.

[CholeraJoe]

U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, of Arizona, wants to keep it that way. But when he asked Congress to phase out the penny five years ago he failed; he intends to try again this year. If he fails again, he joked recently, he may open a business melting down pennies to resell the metal.

If you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all.

[Freedom4US]

I read the legislation prohibiting the melting of coin or specifically 1c coins was rescinded after the switch to zinc in 1982. And then, there are those crafty folks who mutilate pennies with the state-fair machine (elongated pennies) To claim this manna from heaven tho, one will need something like 155 or so to make a pound, and then somehow transport this to the nearest smelter. Scrap dealers or local legislation are setup to discourage folks from bringing in manhole covers or transformers for $$$. One bad sideline is that a lot of folks get zapped to death trying to ripoff CU.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Then we can target the nickel! :)

Less publicized, when copper hit $3.80 and nickel was $9.45, there was 2.9 cents worth of copper and 2.4 cents of nickel (total 5.3 cents of metal) in a nickel.

Pre-1982 copper cents contained 2.5 cents worth of copper. I have saved bottles and bottles of them.

[American_Centurion]

With any luck at all it will end the ridiculous "advertising" shtick of 9.99 and all of it's iterations.

[GATOR NAVY]

One bad sideline is that a lot of folks get zapped to death trying to ripoff CU.

I prefer to look at it more as a test of one's suitability for survival and the passing on of genes.

[hoosierboy]

U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, of Arizona, wants to keep it that way. But when he asked Congress to phase out the penny five years ago he failed; he intends to try again this year. If he fails again, he joked recently, he may open a business melting down pennies to resell the metal.

I know people doing that now.

[ErnBatavia]

I'm finding the new dollar coins in regular circulation quite a bit.

Yeah, but you live up in DHS, which we all know is a whole 'nother world!

[ErnBatavia]

And I want to make it clear that the ugly hand in that pic is NOT mine.

I recognize that hand, and ditto the pose...it's Jerry Hansen, your former City Manager, getting his palm greased...

[FreedomCalls]

Not true! In 1982, the one cent piece was changed from 95% copper to 97% zinc with only a thin copper coating, because there was more that 1¢ worth of copper in the coin.

Sorry, you are wrong. It is true. The price of zinc has increased so much that the bullion value of the penny is now worth more than 1¢.

[dalereed]

"I use the new gold dollar whenever I can get them but the only place that I know of that uses them regularly is the change from a post office stamp machines."

I just refuse to accept them.