For instance, I don't have to check to know with 100% certainty that the Lincoln penny was introduced in 1909 to mark the centennial of the 16th president's birth, replacing the far prettier Indian Head Penny. Or that it originally had sheaves of wheat and a bold ONE CENT on the back. Replaced in 1959 with the Lincoln Memorial.
Forget the design. It became clear long ago we shouldn't have pennies at all. The Lincoln cent became a rebuke. A symbol of inertia, aversion to change, everything wrong in our country. Address climate change? We can't even get rid of the penny. Civilized countries — Canada, Australia, Britain — ditched theirs decades back.
Only in America do we stick with a coin that costs more than three times as much to make than it is worth, not that people spend them much. I wouldn't bend over to pick up a penny. Would you?
So when Donald Trump paused from vandalizing our government Sunday to kill the penny, it took my breath away. It's a ... good idea — no, a great idea. Who uses coinage of any kind? Or cash, for that matter? About time. Bravo, Mr. President! And I have to say that out loud because the liberal superpower — and curse — is we approach situations rationally and can find value even in those we oppose. This isn't the first accomplishment for Trump — he also fast-tracked the vaccine against COVID-19 after ignoring the pandemic. And others.
That said, we don't want to make too much of results while ignoring method. If somebody breaks into your house and washes the dishes, it's still a crime. They could steal stuff next time. Given the blizzard of executive orders of questionable legality pouring from the Oval Office, odds are one or two will resonate with most everybody. We are still hurtling toward the abyss. There are too many Americans willing to live in a country where one man is above the law. If he were Donald the Just, issuing commands steeped in the wisdom of Solomon — spoiler alert, he ain't — I'd still be uncomfortable with the change to a country that used to have a powerful Congress and respected courts and unquestioned elections.
Still. It's a healthy exercise to think positively, even for a moment, about a generally loathsome person. This reminds me of when I was researching Henry Ford a few years ago. You might think of him as the genius who created the Model T and the assembly line, and he was. But Ford was also driven nuts by wealth and success — it didn't start with Elon Musk — and lurched onto the international stage, trying to end the first world war by sponsoring a voyage of peace activists to Europe and becoming a roaring antisemite.
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Except the nickel which would replace the penny actually costs over 14¢ to make!
ReplyDeleteIt's all a lead up to moving cashless. Like gasoline at $3.02.01 they'll skim small digital amounts to make big gains
DeleteAmen.
DeleteJust read Walmart has closed checkout lanes while customers are in line, redirecting them to self-checkout where they cannot pay cash. Forces them to use credit or debit cards. As long as it's not contraband or controlled substances/merchandise it's nobody's business but mine. Carrots, socks or soap. AI is going to make aggragate data mining's invasive ess even worse.
Like Office Space!
DeleteCommon cents solution to the penny problem. Make a new nickel with the same metal as the current penny, make it a little bigger and obviously not a penny, and Voila! A nickel that costs a nickel.
DeleteAbout 10 years ago I began spending my pennies instead of tossing them in the old Dormeyer coffee pot I have on my work bench for spare change. Instead I let pennies collect in my car's cupholder for a short period. Not long. Then I grab up 50 or so at a time and use them in the automatic check-out machines at Jewel when I pick up their cheapie Signature brand ginger ale. Those Jewel machines still accept pennies. Be smart, though. Don't hold people up pumping in 500 pennies. Keep it to no more than 50 at a time. You won't draw attention. There you go.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right, of course, especially on the point that we shouldn't be distracted by this reasonable idea from the utter devastation being done to our way of managing the country.
ReplyDeleteJust to add a little numerical context. The US Mint monitors usage of cash and the amount of new money minted is based on demand, so at least in theory as non-cash payment methods proliferate, we'll need and make fewer pennies anyway. The penny does cost about 3.7 cents to make, totaling $179 Million, out of about $1.1 Billion of total cost of minting money in 2024. The $100 note costs less than 10 cents to make. https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12771.htm
What I'm saying is these are minute amounts and while again, it is a good idea, the savings are insignificant compared to the overall disaster. It's not even washing the dishes, its more like the thieves broke into our house, took the TV and stereo and the safe, broke every window and piece of furniture, but straightened a painting on the wall that looked a little crooked.
Just saw this from the LA Times, Musk's companies have received $4.9 Billion in government subsidies. Maybe he should look for some efficiency savings there.
Deletehttps://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subsidies-20150531-story.html
Numismatics unite! Those Indian Head Pennies and Mercury Dimes were classics. I used to ride my bike up to the bank on Oakton Street in Skokie and sit on the sidewalk going through rolls of pennies. Some good finds to fill my book; although I never snagged the elusive 1909-S VDB. Nor the Holy Grail, the1943 Bronze Wheat Penny. Coin collecting was all about the hunt.
ReplyDeleteIf it was the Skokie Trust and Savings Bank, at Oakton and Kostner, that was my first bank. Opened a savings account there with my birthday money, in 1958.
DeleteThe bank had just opened for business that same summer, and they gave me a north suburban street guide, which also included schedules for the 97 Skokie bus (CTA), and the North Shore interurban line, which stopped at Dempster. Still have it.
The guide also boasted about their "wide, spacious lobby" and their two modern drive-in windows. And the free, convenient parking for 46 cars, along with a picture of the lot.. One of the cars was a Hudson!
Yes, that was the bank! And I remember those drive in windows as among the first I ever saw. I loved Skokie; from south side in 1958, father sold house in 1996.
DeleteWhy does Trump care about pennies? He doesn't. It's another distraction. Trump only cares about things that affect him directly, and I seriously doubt that he ever carries change in his pocket. I mean, where would he get it? I can't imagine him ever paying for something.
ReplyDeleteI agree 💯
DeleteI pick up pennies that I see on the sidewalk, I see a lot of people ignore them and walk by. They tend to be younger generations. I am showing my age .
ReplyDeleteI believe the full quote was - "We can send a man to the moon but we can't even get rid of the penny." LOL
ReplyDeleteah, the much maligned penny. what is it good for? absolutely noth- .
ReplyDeletewell as it turns out the penny saves us money and makes revenue for state and local taxing bodies. sales tax being the primary consideration in this drama. before the wide adoption of electronic sales transactions pennies played an important role in the proper and legally mandated collection of said taxes. it being legally mandated that accurate sale tax be charged by all merchants.
doing away with the penny has been proposed many times before and the objection by local legislators was loss of revenue for their coffers which led to the proposal of rounding. up or down to the nearest nickel . merchants and consumers objected to this as over the course of time, say a year it adds up to a significant amount to pay or lose. sales taxes range but are always in the single digits. nobody is happy if the penny disappears but taxes dont. merchants or consumers that make many small transactions considered this to be a nightmare.
if the penny goes something that should cost $5.93 would cost the consumer $5.95 . something that costs $5.92 would only be $5.90.
even in this digital age where no change is exchanged the penny still needs to exist , at least theoretically. we might think about this in the same terms as how inflation eats away at us . inflation is currently around 3% . nobody gladly pays 3 cents extra for everything. though it seems like a trivial amount . it adds up.
if the penny is no more it will cost us more for everything because the people who sell things won't round down.
as for the value of a coin vs. its cost to mint. coins get used over and over again meaning a penny is worth a penny in millions of transactions even though it cost more than a penny to make.
Right on.
DeleteThe penny can always exist in electronic transactions but eventually it will become as inconsequential as the Japanese Sen.
DeleteThe idea of reuse of pennies is an excellent point.
ReplyDeletepennies work well when making a "protest payment", though.
ReplyDeleteIf the penny is made obsolete, will we have the opportunity to "cash in" at banks, or will they just suddenly become worthless?
Sadly, the folks who still must conduct their transactions in cash are too poor to have a bank account or a credit card. I've always thought it ironic that bank fees are waived if you have enough $ in your account and "free" credit cards are only issued to those with bank accounts. With a credit card, you can shop for deals online; without one, you end up paying more for your purchase.
Per CNN, if the penny goes, then there will need for more nickels. And nickels cost even more to manufacture. Funny, but insignificant. I'd rather keep the copper coin than the orange fascist.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/business/costs-of-pennies-and-nickels/index.html
Trump may have fast-tracked the COVID vaccines, but did you notice how quickly he turned against vaccination? Once his idiot supporters got it into their near-impermeable heads that vaccination was a plot and an unforgiveable infringement on their liberties, Trump became all about vaccine opposition, to the point of hiring that malignant fool RFKJ to head HHS.
ReplyDeleteMy takeaway from this is that Trump caters and panders to the mob as much as he leads it. That's what demagogues do; it's all about appealing to people's worst instincts and emotions.
Well said, Bitter Scribe.
DeleteThe remark about the burglar washing dishes is a classic! Should be painted on the wall.
ReplyDeleteIf it takes 5 seconds to pick up a penny, you are being recompensed for your time at a rate of $7.20 an hour, approximately the federal minimum wage. Not THAT shabby when you’re just walking along. And, in addition, all the day you’ll have good luck.
Henry Ford was a real piece of…work. In 1915, Ford blamed "German-Jewish bankers" for instigating the First World War. After WWII began, he even claimed that the torpedoing of U.S. merchant ships by German submarines was the result of a conspiracy by financier war-makers. The financiers to whom he was referring was Ford's code for Jews. Ford also opposed American entry into World War II and "insisted that war was the product of greedy financiers who sought profit in human destruction."
ReplyDeleteFord was a conspiracy theorist who claimed that “Jewish internationalism” posed a threat to “traditional American values”--which he strongly believed were at risk. He even opposed the teaching of square-dancing in American schools…because he thought it originated with Jews. Also hated jazz, for the same reason. So being a meshuganer didn’t start with Trump or Musk.
On his 75th birthday, forward was presented with the award of the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest medal Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner. Hitler idolized Ford early on, proclaiming that "I shall do my best to put his theories into practice in Germany"--and the design of the VW Beetle was based on Ford's Model T.
Ford had no liking for FDR, and thought Roosevelt was inching the U.S. closer to war. He continued to do business with the Nazis, including the manufacture of military equipment in his German factories, which also used French POWs as slave laborers. However, he also agreed to build warplane engines for the British. He played on both sides during WWII. Ford produced 9,000 B-24 Liberator bombers at his enormous Willow Run facility...half of the 18,000 total B-24s produced during the war.
A close Willow Run associate of Ford reported that when he was shown newsreel footage of the Holocaust atrocities in Europe, Ford collapsed with a stroke. He died not long afterward, in the spring of 1947. What goes around comes around.
I’m not sure if it’s true or not but I once heard that towards the end of the war Ford managed gain custody of a few German POW’s to work the grounds of his winter home in Ft Myers, Florida. They were even allowed to leave the property occasionally and would go see a movie or get a bite to eat at places that African Americans were not allowed to enter at the time.
DeleteI’ve driven past his place in Ft Myers dozens of times. It’s across the street from Thomas Edison’s winter home. I’ve never taken the tour, not a big fan of either.
At the beginning of WWII, Ford Motor Co. was run by Henry's vile, violent, insane thug from his "Social Work Department", Harry Bennett. Bennett so fucked up FoMoCo, that the Navy discharged Henry Ford II, AKA Hank the Deuce to take over the company, with his first order from the War production Board to fire Bennett & ban him from all Ford property. After that, Ford managed to go into full production, building planes & Jeeps.
DeleteFoMoCo...haven't seen or thought of that name in years. Used to be a car repair business on Sheffield, in a big old brick garage that was probably once part of a Ford dealership. Had a big sign in the empty lot next door, resting up against the wall of the garage. Saw it every day, in the 70s and 80s, as I rode by on the "L"...the dark blue sign said FoMoCo, in white script lettering.
DeleteThat sign was as old as hell, and a real collectible. Really wanted to snatch it, but it was behind a chain-link fence, topped with barbed wire. My cousin worked on a Ford assembly line in suburban Detroit. He would talk about working for "Uncle Henry"...and he called it the MoFoCo.
If all the reasons for its demise are true, all he had to do was turn it over to his Congress. It could have been quickly enacted and they could have shared a victory lap. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteYes, i a numismatist. But I also pick up any loose change on the street in my quest to fight back against entropy.
ReplyDelete