Alas Poor Penny, I Knew You Well

It is official. The U.S. Mint is going to stop producing pennies as of this year. No more. The shiny copper piece is worth 1¢ but costs 3.69¢ to produce. This is known as losing money. But hey, the government subsidizes a great many things, but has finally given up on subsidizing the lowly penny. The time has finally come.  

It doesn't seem like anyone is going to come to the penny's rescue with a Horatio Alger story of how they saved their pennies and are now a billionaire. The Lincoln penny was introduced in 1909 to replace the Indian Head penny. 1909 was the centennial of Lincoln's birth and the penny was a commemorative coin for him.

The Indian Head penny could never be produced today. The expression, now unheard of, "I wouldn't give you a red cent" referred to the Indian Head penny. I once had a coin collection and a roll of Indian Head pennies. My collection was stolen by of all people my father, who was always desperate for money.

To help fill out my collection of coins I would go to the bank and claim that as a business, the family flower shop, we needed rolls of coins to make change. This was a lie. With the rolls of coins I sorted through them to fill out the collection. I was proud that I completed a full set of Washington quarters through this tactic. I never found the 1909-S VDB penny.

The Indian Head was produced from 1859 to 1909. The Lincoln penny that is a 1909-S VDB was the Holy Grail for collectors. I never had one.

There were three mints that produced coins back in the day and the mint was designated by a mint mart; S for San Francisco; D for Denver. No mint mark meant the coin was produced in Philadelphia. Thus, any one year could have produced coins from three different mints. This always added to the collector's pursuit to complete their collection.

The 1909-S VDB mint mark referred to the engraver of Lincoln's image, Victor David Brenner. His initials were on the reverse of the coin, the so-called Wheat Back.  

In 1959 the Lincoln Memorial in Washington was depicted on the reverse of the penny. This was done to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth. This lasted through 2008 when in 2009, to commemorate the bicentennial, 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, four scenes from Lincoln's life were depicted: log cabin, rail splitting, Illinois State Capitol, U.S. Capitol for the presidency.

I have to admit I don't think I've ever had a 2009 penny with any of the four scenes. The collectors must have gobbled them up.

The Union Shield was placed on the back in 2010 to commemorate the 150th anniversary (sesquicentennial) of the election of Lincoln in 1860 and has remained on the reverse. 

It's almost a shame to take a coin out of circulation that has been used to impart so many parts of American history through Lincoln's life. But that 3.69¢ to produce something worth 1¢ is Trumping everything.

My own history of the penny aside from collecting the various years and mint marks, was to place some on the railroad tracks of the LIRR Port Washington line that ran through the back of our property in Flushing.

We lived just east of the Murray Hill station, and as an adventurous lad in the 1950s I climbed down the embankment, knowing the train schedules so I wouldn't have to flee or get killed, and placed pennies on the tracks and then tried to find them after the train flattened them. I remember one came out in almost the shape of a heart that I gave to a girl in grammar school. I don't have any of these flattened pennies. But the girl's name was Olga.

The NYT carries a story that has been expected for a long time. The U.S. mint will stop ordering the blanks on which to make the pennies and will end production when the current supply runs out. So long penny. Sales will be rounded up or down to the nearest nickel. Or so it is hoped.

Nickels are endangered as well. They cost 13.75¢ to produce to put a coin worth 5¢ into circulation. Will there be a trend to eliminate more coins?

There are other countries that still produce what is the equivalent of a penny, but not many. Other countries have eliminated what would be the equivalent of a one-cent piece. Canada has long eliminated paper one and two-dollar bills and replaced them with coins: One loon on the back for a dollar; two loons on the back for $2. Loonies and toonies. Coins last longer than paper.

Prior to 1859 the one-cent piece was a cartwheel depicting various poses of Lady Liberty. A penny had value, basically up to WW II. Consider the scene in the Depression movie The Grapes of Wrath where the Oakie brother and sister kids eye the candy counter at the diner. They have one cent between, and the lady lies and tells them the candy is two-for-a-penny. Kris Kristofferson wrote a song about the scene.

And in case you weren't lucky enough to have a Large Cent in your pocket, you might have a half-cent, a coin produced from 1793-1857. They were phased out because with inflation (there is always inflation). They were impractical. So, I guess in 1857 there might have been nostalgia for the discontinued half-cent and what was the world coming to when you couldn't buy something with a half-cent? 

And so it goes. What can you buy with a penny? Even a lot of pennies, say 1,000 of them, (20! rolls of 50! pennies in each roll) which is worth $10. What can you buy with $10? A Starbucks frappuccino with a caramel script on top with your name on the cup?

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