Religion Salie provides her two cents on the top of the penny

What’s nugatory, however priceless? Missed, however treasured? Ubiquitous, however ephemeral?

What makes us cease on the street to transcend our pleasure and stoop to choose it up?

It is the standard, shiny, tiny penny.

The Treasury introduced it can stop making new pennies by early subsequent yr. Will they disappear instantly? No. However like so many issues in our lives – reliably snowy winters, face-to-face conversations, books whose pages we are able to flip – pennies are fading away. 

Earlier than you shrug me off as a sentimental idiot sufficiently old to recollect visiting the penny sweet retailer on Cape Cod, I do perceive that pennies are “outdated” and “inefficient.” The federal government spends about 3.7 cents to make 1 penny. That is a lack of $85 million final yr alone. And round half of us do not even carry money anymore. I do not assume the Tooth Fairy believes in pennies these days. So, canceling them makes “cents.”

However in a world the place it looks as if everybody’s wanting down, a penny can remind us issues may be wanting up … you understand, pennies from heaven?

who was on the primary penny in 1792? A girl! It was deemed un-American again then to depict a ruler on a coin, so pennies featured Woman Liberty.

It wasn’t till 1909 that President Lincoln’s face graced the coin. His iconic profile was designed by a Lithuanian-born Jewish immigrant, Victor David Brenner, who created what’s considered essentially the most reproduced piece of artwork in historical past.

1943 pennies had been product of zinc-coated metal, as a result of copper was wanted for World Conflict II.

Ought to we simply throw that historical past away? Effectively, sure! So long as we imbue every toss with our needs.

“A penny to your ideas” was coined practically 500 years in the past by Sir Thomas Extra, again when providing somebody a penny meant their musings had been actually price one thing.

These are simply my two cents, however … no person throws a bitcoin right into a fountain.

Name me a numismatic nostalgic, however in a world stuffed with crypto and virtuality, I am going to preserve my eyes peeled for the tarnished, tangible, inefficient promise of luck.

      
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Story produced by Liza Monasebian. Editor: Ed Givnish. 

      
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