A STORY WORTH TELLING
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“ If it's a penny for your thoughts and you give your 2 cents worth, where did the other penny go?”
–– George Carlin
“Are they really going to going to stop making pennies?” was the topic of discussion among friends last week. “Must be true,” I said.
“Sadly, a penny saved is no longer a penny earned, as Ben Franklin once noted. In fact, they’ve been an economic loss for almost 20
years.” According to the U.S.
Mint, a penny’s production cost was 3.69 cents in 2024, or about 3 cents for manufacturing and the rest for administrative costs and distribution.
“Rising costs aren’t the real reason pennies are going away,” said someone else. “No one spends them anymore.
Most pennies put into circulation are given as change in cash transactions, then never
reused.” “It’s true,” added a banker in the conversation, “There were about 240 billion in circulation last year — that’s 700 pennies per person.”
“I have my share,” I said with a laugh. “Some on my dresser, some in my car’s console and some under the front seat.”
“I save pennies I find on the ground,” said another. “They are reminders that someone in heaven is thinking about you. Haven’t you heard the poem? ‘So don’t pass by that penny when you’re feeling blue. It may be a penny from heaven, that an angel’s passed to you.’” Adding to the poetic perspective, I said, “‘Find a penny, pick it up. All day long you’ll have good luck.’ I'm guilty of picking up a heads-up penny for luck. But if I spot one that is tail’s up, I turn it over and leave it for someone to find good fortune.” While financial riches might be hard to measure in pennies today, the copper coins represent more than mere monetary value to most of us. They represent priceless value in these conversational expressions that have coined philosophies of American life for generations.
My grandmother’s favorite was, “Take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.” Survivors of The Great Depression like my grandfather also said, “They’re so poor, they don’t have 2 cents to rub together.”
“A penny for your thoughts” attributes value in wisdom to the meager 1-cent piece.
While I usually remind others that, “Advice is worth what you pay for it,” the offer at least establishes some modicum of value to knowledge.
Today, “rattling money” –– as one longtime friend always described pocket change –– can be little more than a nuisance amid plastic money, folding money or too often for me, no money. But perhaps historical appreciation for a penny is why my gaze stopped on a wheat penny in my pocket pile one day a couple of years ago.
A wheat penny was the first version of the still current penny bearing a likeness of “Honest Abe” on one side and two grains of wheat and the words “one cent” on the other. They were minted from 1909 to 1958, then the reverse side was replaced with a likeness of the Lincoln Memorial in 1959.
Finding a wheat penny in pocket change, or anywhere today except in a coin collection, is rare. But the odds of someone handing me one in change at a Center business that day might have been good enough to win the lottery.
This one bore the date 1919. It was minted when plenty of Indian Head pennies were still common in pockets and cash registers. The coin had been in circulation for nearly 100 years the day it found its way into my clothing.
World War I had ended just one year previous when someone first pocketed the penny. Congress approved the Grand Canyon as a national park that same year. A flight from New York to Atlantic City established the first commercial airline service. Woodrow Wilson was president. The 19th Amendment to the constitution giving women the right to vote was newly ratified. And my father’s parents were practically newlyweds, having just tied the knot in 1920.
So, what’s a 1919 wheat penny worth?
Besides lots of memories and some sage advice about life and luck?
Around a dollar, maybe two, according to numismatic value guides.
“What will we ever do without pennies?” one of my friends lamented.
“Well, for one thing,” I said, “the cost of conversation will go up.
From now on, it’s going to be ‘a nickel for your thoughts’ to start discussions like this.”
Contact Aldridge at leonaldridge@ gmail. com. Other Aldridge columns are archived at leonaldridge. com
