By Greg Doering, Kansas Farm Bureau
Financially, making cents doesn’t make sense. A recent presidential directive to stop minting pennies aims to solve the problem that could only befall a government — losing money by making it.
Even with the current pause, the penny will be around for a long time. There are an estimated 240 billion pennies in circulation, or roughly $7 for every person in the United States.
First minted in 1787, the copper coin has been the lowest denomination of physical currency since we gained our independence. Though originally made entirely of copper, since the 1850s pennies have used tin, zinc and even steel in efforts to overcome the fact the metal in the coin can be worth more than its face value.
Projections vary, but only about half of the 1-cent coins are in circulation. The rest pile up in cupholders, purses, couch cushions and dresser tops in addition to being tossed into a receptacle designated for spare change.
My grandmother had a large Mason jar perched on the washing machine to gather all the coins stuffed in my grandfather’s pockets. As a child, I’d look at the jar and the seemingly vast fortune it contained with awe.
When the collection grew large enough or my grandmother ran out of other chores for me, we’d take the jar upstairs and dump its accumulated wealth out onto the kitchen table. Then we would sort the coins into their respective denominations and count them into individual piles — 40 quarters, 50 dimes, 40 nickels and 50 pennies.
The next step was to grab a flattened paper sleeve and do my best to form it into a circle. I would drop coins in the top of the sleeve, using my fingers to straighten the first few in the wrapper. Once the proper amount of coins were deposited, the edges on both sides were folded over to secure the coins inside the sleeve.
In the process of sorting and counting, I’d scan the dates stamped on the coins and take note of any that were particularly old to set aside. I also collected a few Indian Head pennies, plenty of Lincoln Wheat cents, a handful of Buffalo nickels, a couple Mercury dimes and an assortment of silver quarters.
The dream was always to find something that was worth more than face value because of its numismatic quality rather than its metal makeup. None of the pennies, nickels or dimes had enough historical significance and have long since been disposed of. I still have a collection of silver quarters and half dollars, but it’s been decades since I’ve manually counted and rolled spare change.
Once I discovered the bank had a machine to sort and add up coins, I became a quick convert to the convenience. But that was a long time ago. Today my change jar is hidden away in a kitchen cabinet. Whenever I clean out my truck or tidy up my dresser, I deposit what little loose change I have in it.
Over the past decade it’s been filled about halfway because I rarely use cash for daily transactions. Just like with rolling coins or writing checks, plastic has replaced paper at the checkout, and it always makes exact change.
“Insight” is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.
