Do you have a penny in your pocket? Odds are, you have a jar or dish full of pennies somewhere in your house that you don’t bother to count.
According to a news article I came across on the internet, there are approximately 130 billion pennies currently in circulation or hiding out in those piggy banks at your house. That’s a lot of pennies and if you were to gather them all together they would weigh more than 716 million pounds. If you’re like me, when you start talking millions and billions, those numbers are too big to properly imagine.
Those statistics make you wonder why the Mint continues to produce 5-16 billion pennies every year. Sure, some coins are damaged and taken out of circulation. Some people damage them on purpose in machines made for just that purpose. I gave a couple of pennies to my grandsons to do that a few years ago. And I think I had to feed the machine quarters for the pleasure of ruining that penny. LOL.
And who knows how many pennies are lost each year? Just think about those poor lonesome pennies that fall on the ground and aren’t considered worth picking up. But if you do want to pick them up, you will be glad to know pennies don’t have an expiration date and are generally passed around between hands for around 40 years. Of course, I do have those in my piggy bank that have been there for longer than that. I did break my piggy bank once to buy my first typewriter, but since then the piggy bank has been safe and the pennies inside just getting older.
Once upon a time, a penny was worth something. It was actually made out of copper as early as 1793. A current penny contains 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper to give them their distinctive copper color. It isn’t only the copper content that has shrunk since the early pennies. The whole penny shrank. The original one-cent coin was five times heavier than pennies now and almost half again as large.
While we seem to love counting our pennies, the fact is it costs about two pennies to make a penny if that makes sense. Well, when you read the costs, you might not think it makes much sense. The penny accounts for the largest amount of loss for the U.S. Mint. From 2009-2019 the U.S. Mint produced pennies at a total loss of $586,000,000. In 2019 the loss was $73,000,000. Oh, and the nickel costs about 8 cents to make. But penny and nickel supporters point out that dimes and quarters are made at less than their worth which balances things out. And of course, the penny makers don’t want us to stop loving pennies in our pockets.
Another interesting fact about pennies is that it is the first coin to have a U.S. president’s image on the coin. Before 1909, all U.S. coins were designed with an image of an eagle or the mythical figure Liberty. America’s early founders were strongly anti-monarchist, and thought it inappropriate to have a living person’s face on a coin. Congress made this a law in 1866. Then in 1909, which would have been President Lincoln’s 100th birthday year, the Mint produced a commemorative penny featuring Lincoln’s face with the Lincoln Memorial on the reverse. The coins were so popular that they changed an American tradition.
We call them pennies because that’s what a British coin used in the new world was called. The penny was the first currency of any type authorized by the United States. Of course, a penny could no doubt buy something back in those days. At the risk of all of you deciding I’m ancient, I will admit I can remember when a penny could buy something. A piece of Double Bubble gum. A Dum Dum sucker. Some time on a parking meter. Five pennies would get you a nice size candy bar if you had a sweet tooth. Twenty-six of them would buy a gallon of gas.
Some think the penny has played its role and should be phased out, but so far that hasn’t happened. We don’t seem ready to give up our pennies. Perhaps that’s because for years some people have thought finding a penny is lucky and gives rise to the saying, “Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day you’ll have good luck.” Of course, I’ve also heard the penny has to be face up or all the luck has run out of it.
Then there’s the phrase “a penny for your thoughts.” That was first found in a 1547 collection of contemporary English phrases compiled by John Heywood. On the other hand, when people give their opinion about something, they will add that it is “my two cents.” That’s double price for what somebody might pay for your thoughts.
For over two centuries, the penny’s design has symbolized the spirit of the nation, from Liberty to Lincoln. The design for the first one cent coin was suggested by Benjamin Franklin. Since 1787, over 300 billion pennies with eleven different designs have been minted. The 2010 Lincoln penny symbolizes President Lincoln’s preservation of the United States as a single and united country.
Not sure anybody has ever actually given me a penny for my thoughts, but I’ve shared a lot of them anyway. And I have been known to pick up a penny.
How do you feel about the penny? Will you pick one up if you spot one on the ground?
Comments 28
I do pick up pennies-like to check the date. I remember as a child putting them-only one-on the railroad tracks next to my grandparent’s home. Fun to retrieve after the train went by. Fun facts-thanks for sharing.
Merry Christmas 🎄
Author
I assume it flattened that penny, Karen. I’ve never tried it or seen a penny that was mashed that way. I wouldn’t be surprised if my son has done it since he and some friends used to overnight camp near a railroad track years ago.
I do check dates on my pennies too, but most of the ones that end up in my pocket are fairly new.
I always pick up pennies from the ground and say a penny saved is a penny earned. Another thing a found penny reminds me of is a line from an old movie.. ” a bright and shiny penny, a foundation for your future!” I don’t remember what movie or anything else about it. But that line always come to mind. My brother thinks that when he finds a penny on the ground, it’s a message from our late father because when he was a kid, Dad who was a carpenter, would pay him a penny for every nail he picked up. You certainly found a lot of facts about the lowly penny. Very interesting reading. Thanks for sharing. Oh, one other thing.. pennies used to have wheat on the reverse side. I think it was around 1958 that they changed to the Lincoln Memorial.
Author
What a sweet story about your brother and found pennies, Lee. I’ve read many stories about pennies from heaven and whether they are true or not, they do make the penny finder happy. Your brother has more reason than most of us to think that penny is from his dad since he has those memories of your dad paying him a penny for nails he found.
The wheat penny is was issued as the main penny for several years. You can still sometimes see one in circulation, but most of the time if someone finds one they keep it or sell it to a coin collector. I think in that piggy bank I talk about I might have a couple of the wheat pennies. If so, I’m keeping them.
Yes I pick up pennies. Your interesting story about pennies and it being before Christmas reminded me of the old saying:
Christmas is a coming,
the goose is getting fat,
please to put a penny in the old man’s hat.
If you haven’t got a penny,
then a ha’penny’ll do.
If you haven’t got a ha’penny,
then God Bless You.
Author
Thanks for sharing that, Janice. Lovely poem that makes us remember those pennies and half pennies and that not everybody has either one, but that we can all have the Lord’s blessings.
I have picked them up and I have left them also. I think it depends on how full my hands are at the time, and if they’re lying in a really dirty place.
Author
Very sensible, Connie. I don’t think I’d pick one up out of the mud either. Now, if it were a silver dollar, then I probably would. LOL.
I loved the history and information about the penny. We definitely pick up pennies
when we find them. Remember when we put them in our penny loafers?
Author
I do remember that, Lynda. Loved my penny loafers and they were better with a penny in them. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the post.
My husband and I walk through town taking different routes each day and we definitely pick up any and all pennies. If I find them I believe that Mom and Daddy are sending me I Love You messages and it always warms my heart. One day we found around 50 pennies. A bonanza for sure. We think someone had cleaned out their car and just dumped the pennies. I can’t imagine doing that. It’s also just a fun thing to do on our walks.
Author
Wow. Fifty on one day. That was a bonanza, Linda. I had always heard about the pennies from heaven being a message from a loved one, and always thought it was a sweet thought. Then after Mom died, I found a penny in a unusual place as I told Donna Jean in my comment to her. The day I found it I definitely felt it was a love you message. My sisters, who were with me, weren’t as touched, but I believe Mom found a way to put that penny here for me. Here’s the link if you want to read my 2014 post. https://www.annhgabhart.com/2014/07/24/a-penny-from-heaven/
Enjoyed the post, I am also a penny saver, have jugs full of them too heavy to move. My kids will have to do that after I am gone. I also heard that if you find a penny face up it is a gift from heaven so you put it in your shoe for the rest of the day.
Author
I have heard that you can find pennies from heaven, Donna Jean, but I always thought it was after a loved one died. That it was sort of a message from heaven that all was well. I actually found a penny like that after my mother died in 2014. I wrote a blog post about it and even took a picture of it. The penny was in an unusual place – on the cart we were using to move Mom’s things out of her room at the memory care facility. It wasn’t stuck on the metal railing but it didn’t fall off on the trip up the hall to the door out of the facility where I spotted it. Here’s the link if you’d like to read it. https://www.annhgabhart.com/2014/07/24/a-penny-from-heaven/
But I like what you say about the penny as a gift from heaven. I might just put the next one I find in my shoe for the rest of the day.
Thanks for the history on the penny. It was very interesting. Yep, I pick them up; eventually together they will buy something or can be used to ride the pony at Meijers which my grandson always loved. I think now he’s outgrown it but he loved it before he became to be old to be kissed by Nana in front of his classmates.
Author
Oh, those grandbabies do grow up, Pamela. As long as he still lets you hug him when nobody is watching. LOL. And one penny added to another and several others might finally buy something.
Enjoyed reading the history of the penny. My husband picks up every penny he sees .
Author
So glad you enjoyed reading about the penny, Lucretia. And I’m like your husband. It’s hard to just leave money on the ground.
I surely do pick up a penny from the ground. “A penny saved is a penny earned”!
Author
I’m right there with you, Judi. I pick them up too even if, as the superstitious say, that the luck has run out of them. 🙂
I pick up pennies as I figure it might some day be a$100 bill I find. Loved learning about penny history. I save change in can and cash it in for summer trips.
Author
I think most of us would grab a $100 bill if we saw one, Cammy. We might even chase after it if a wind blew it past us. I did find a $20 bill once while we were on vacation. It was at a scenic pull off and nobody else was around. I felt bad for whoever lost it. That was a few years ago when $20 was a good hunk of money for most of us. Maybe even back when you might get a piece of bubblegum for 2 pennies. Saving your change is a good way to pile up a little extra cash.
Yes, I definitely pick up pennies. It would make me sad to see them go. I walked down the street and bought my first ice cream with ten pennies when I was three years old. My aunt always sent us shiny pennies on our birthdays according to how old we were.
Thank you for this interesting story.
Author
Glad you enjoyed my penny history, Kim. I think my nieces and nephews might think I’d lost my mind if I sent them pennies these days, but I love the sweetness of that gift you got from your aunt. We have an offering box at our old country church that has “Orphans” on it. It’s been there throughout all my years attending the church which is going on 60. The tradition was for the members to give a penny a year to send to support children’s homes. We still do the birthday offerings now, but we stick in paper money these days to go to the Children’s Homes. It’s a fun tradition.
I absolutely love your blogs that are filled with historical information! So much fun to read. I do pick up pennies when I see one. I read a story once about a rich gentleman that stated he always picks up a penny because each one has “In God We Trust” stamped on it. To him, picking up a penny reaffirmed that everything he had was a blessing from God. That story stuck with me, so now it’s hard to ignore a penny.
I do have a stash of old wheat pennies that my aunt collected years ago. I read that some of the pennies produced during WWII that contain steel, rather than copper are worth quite a bit of money. So one day when there was nothing pressing for me to do. I went through all those pennies one by one to see if I had one of those rare ones. Unfortunately all I have is a lot of pennies. I also have a jar filled with spare change. I make it a habit to only keep a dollars worth of change in my wallet,…old habit left over from those days of using cash instead of plastic. Anything over $1 goes in the can and I cash it in every now in then.
I remember those penny candy days too. I lived my first 9 years in a small town very much like Josie in your Hollyhill books. My great uncle had a little candy booth set up in town near the school. We all saved our pennies or collected those returnable bottles to be able to buy some candy or gum on our way home from school. Fun memories.
Thanks for sharing such cool information about pennies, Ann. It’s always fun to read your posts. 🙂
Author
For some reason, your comment on my penny post ended up in the “maybe spam” folder, Lavon. Who knows why? But I forget to check for that since it rarely happens that I have any comments I have to get out of spam jail. I’m glad I got yours out since it’s great to know that you enjoy my posts with a little extra info threaded into them or in the case of pennies, dropped into them. 🙂
I think I’m like you in that none of my pennies are valuable although I’m pretty sure I have a couple of wheat pennies. My mom had some old coins and I now have a couple of those. But most of the coins in this or that place are just face value coins that aren’t near as valuable at the store as they were when I first dropped them in my coin purse or piggy bank.
Thanks so much for reading my posts and commenting. Makes writing the posts much more fun.
I do pick up any penny I find on the ground.I try to save all my change and every few years we cash it in to go toward gas on a vacation.These days,since we use the debit card more than cash ,there is less change to save.
The most impressive part of this post to me was that you have pennies in a piggy bank that you’ve had so many years. Wow!
Author
I guess I never needed to break that piggy bank, Lisa. Actually, it was given to me by my grandmother before she died. So, no way do I want to ever break it. That’s not to say I couldn’t get the pennies out. I lost the bottom stopper years ago and just have something stuffed in the bottom to keep the coins from falling out. And I have probably added a few coins over the years. The silver dollar my dad gave me when I was a girl is in there, I think. Maybe I should look at those coins and figure out what’s in that piggy bank. And it is a pig and not some other figure.