Penny Art

There is someone out there who has created a large image of Lincoln out of pennies here. I'm glad he's got so much time and money on his hands.  I would never have the patience.

100 pennies or 1 dollar coin?

Would you prefer a single $1 coin or 100 one cent coins?  Hopefully you'd choose the former and not the latter.  Otherwise, why are you even reading this blog?  I would guess that the vast majority would like the dollar coin. Those who would take the pennies are probably under 6 years old.  Now that we've established that, how many pennies would it take for you to choose the pennies over the dollar coin?  If someone offered you 101 pennies or a $1 coin which would you take?  I'd still take the dollar coin myself.  What about 110 pennies vs 1 dollar coin?  125 pennies?  200 pennies? 500 pennies?  What is your threshold? Do you even have a threshold?  Mine is probably around 500 pennies.  I'd probably take 500 pennies over a dollar coin...if they were rolled.

Penny Stacking

This website has some amazing stacks of pennies.  If you have a bunch of pennies and are really bored, you can go to town like these folks at the penny stacking website.

A Cool Penny Trick

This little trick with pennies is a good gag to play with friends or family.  Basically you bet someone that you can correctly predict a number by pulling that exact number of pennies from your pocket. To set up the trick you have to cut a penny in half.  Then pull 4 full pennies and one of your 1/2 pennies out of your pocket and put them in your hand.  Tell the person you are betting against, that you will correctly choose the exact number of pennies based off of the number they pick.  Then tell them to choose any 2 digit number.  Then have them split up the digits and add them together (ie. if they picked 27, they would add 2+7, if they pick 76, then 7+6, etc.). Then they need to subtract the total of this addition problem from their original number (ie. 27 - (2+7) = 27 - 9 = 18, 76 - (7 +6) = 76 - 13 = 63, etc.).  Then they need to add the two digits of the result together (ie. 1 + 8 = 9, 6 + 3 = 9, etc.).  then they need to divide that result by 2.  They will get 4 1/2 every time.  Be sure to emphasize that you have the exact number of pennies in your hand as their result.  They'll think they've won, since there's "no way" you can have 1/2 a penny in your hand.  Then reveal your 4 1/2 pennies and laugh all the way to victory!

WSJ article

So last month Jo Craven McGinty had a penny article in the Wall Street Journal. The only point that I don't really like in this article that doesn't take a stand on either side, is that the penny and nickel get used over and over again so that makes it "worth it".  Hello people! Even if these pennies and nickels were each used in millions of transaction, they would still not be "worth it"! Why?  Because the federal government only gets paid for them ONCE.  The secondary market for any good or service does NOT add value to it.  With the trillions and trillions of pennies that have been minted, you'd think that the penny "market" would be supersaturated now, and that they would be utterly worthless. If you're thinking this, then you are absolutely RIGHT!  They are not even worth the 1 cent value they are supposed to represent.  Imagine instead that the pennies were Rolex watches.  If there were trillions of Rolex watches out there, nobody would want one anymore.  Each person on the planet would have a hundred or more of them, and you wouldn't be able to give them away.  People would start throwing them in the trash, and the landfills of the world would fill up with Rolex watches.  This is what the penny has been reduced to.  A worthless copper colored disk that nobody wants or cares about.  Here's a bulletin to the US government: We throw pennies away because they are worthless! Stop minting them.

Worthless Pennies

Mike Hall from the Topeka Capital Journal is my new friend. Read his article on getting rid of the penny. It's short and to the point.

The End of Money

Has anyone read this book out there?  It looks pretty interesting.  Here is a link to an excerpt from the book. It looks like it might be an informative read.

Edit: I have now read this book.  It's a pretty good read.  It gives you a good perspective on money and monetary policies, and just exactly how a cashless society would work.  3.5 stars out of 5.

Fear of $1 bills?

So, I had an interesting experience earlier this week.  In addition to my accounting job, I also deliver pizzas a few nights a week.  Now in our delivery area, there are nice areas and not so nice areas, and then there are down right scary areas.  I delivered an order to a home in the "not so nice" area and the guy's order was $21.37.  He gave me two $20 bills.  I said, "So I guess your change will be $18.63," and proceeded to dig into my back pocket for my "$20 bank" I get from the store to make change on deliveries.  It's got two $5s, nine $1s, and $1 worth of coins.  As I'm pulling the little bag out, the guy says, "Just give me $15."  OK, so I pull out the two $5s and start to count out five $1s and the guy says, "Never mind, just give me ten."  So I was very happy.  I just got an $8.63 tip, instead of $3.63. But I could tell the guy really, really did not want five $1 bills in his pocket.  In fact it was worth at least $5 to him NOT to have any ones!  And of course, he definitely did not want the coins either.
Delivering pizzas now for almost 2 years, 3 or 4 nights a week, I've delivered hundreds, maybe even thousands of orders.  I can count on 1 hand the number of times, someone has wanted coins for their change.  Most nights I don't even use my $20 bank for change.  And I've never used the coins on a delivery order, except maybe 3 or 4 times total.
If I had to guess, probably 65% of the orders are paid by credit card, and the other 35% with cash.  So that puts it into better perspective.  But when I'm actually in the pizza store and someone comes in to pick up and pay for their pizza, I always have to dig out the coins to use as change.  Maybe it's just the retail environment that conditions people into believing that they must get their change to the exact penny.  But if I run out of pennies, I don't get more from the safe, I just round off everyone's transactions after that, and nobody ever complains or says anything.
Seriously people, with stories like this, it's quite obvious that the penny is completely and utterly useless, and the majority of people (at least those that pay cash for their pizza deliveries) do not want them!  Let's get rid of them now, and everyone will be happier and richer!

Penny Pranks

So I linked in the past to this guy who pranks people by trying to pay with pennies.  He's got a whole series of videos on youtube here.  He goes all out trying to buy jewelry, dinner, cars and loads of other expensive stuff.  I love the people's reactions.

Found a Canadian Penny Yesterday

So I found a Canadian penny in my till at work yesterday.  So how does a discontinued Canadian penny find its way to south Texas?  Your guess is as good as mine.  I'll have to look at it again, because it had the older style picture of Queen Elizabeth on it.

NPR searches to buy something for a penny

Listen to Robert Smith and Jacob Goldstein try to buy something for a penny in Manhattan.

Another Penny Rant

Here, Paul Whitefield from the L.A. Times gives us his two cents on why the US should get rid of the penny.  Sounds good to me.

Online Coin Games

The US Mint website has some online games under their "kids" section.  Some are cheesy, some are lame, some are cute, and some are fun.  All have some connection to current or past US coins.  There are quite a few games there, so there is sure to be something that appeals to everyone.

Another New Article

Last month this article was published on pbs.org.  It talks about how the removal of the Canadian penny is proceeding.  According to the article the Canadian government has only collected about 4 billion of an estimated 35 billion in circulation when the coin was discontinued.  What has happened to the other 31 billion?  Well, let me tell you.  I imagine that they might get back maybe another billion or two over the next few years.  That leaves 29 billion.  I can't imagine more than a billion being kept by collectors, but even if 5 billion are being hoarded, that means that 24 billion pennies are in landfills across Canada.  I doubt the percentages are any different here in the US.  I'll bet that at least 2/3 of the new pennies minted in the US, fall out of circulation immediately.  That means that of the 7.07 billion pennies minted in 2013, we threw away 4.7 billion of them. That's $47 million down the drain.  That means that the average american threw away 15 pennies last year.  For the life of me, I can't figure out why the pro-penny people think that getting rid of the penny will have a negative effect--in any way--to the economy.  I see a $50-70 million BOOST to the economy! Not to mention the $140 million savings to the US government.

Recent Article

Another recent article has come to my attention by Huffington Post. The poll at the end shows 67% strongly favoring getting rid of the penny, and another 14% somewhat favoring getting rid of it.  Of course this article probably did not draw an accurate cross-section of people who represent the popular opinion on the subject, but it would be so nice if it was.  That would mean that most people really do hate the penny as much as I do.

In For A Penny

I can't believe I forgot about this song. Slade was very popular in Britain in the 70s and early 80s, but unfortunately never became very popular here in the US.  It's unfortunate, because these guys rock, and I remember loving them in the early eighties, and I'm still a fan. Long live SLADE!

The Cool Kids

Get on your Hip Hop groove and listen to Pennies by the Cool Kids.

Falling Pennies

I'm not sure why I got a kick out of this video.  Maybe it's the guy's voice.  Maybe it's the Statue of Liberty comment. Whatever it is, enjoy it.

US Currency

So, the most printed and widely distributed bill is the $1 bill, but coming in a close second is the $100 bill. The least printed is the $2 bill.  The reason there are so many $100 bills out there stems from several factors. First, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has been printing a larger and larger percentage of $100 bills. So now if you take the dollar value of all the US currency (coins included) out in circulation right now, $100 bills make up more than 75% of the total...and its percentage is continuing to rise! (As a side note, some sources claim that 50-75% of these $100 bills are not even in the US. They are overseas! This is somewhat understandable, since the US dollar is still the world's reserve currency.) Second, Larger denominations were printed up until the 1940's, and were still in circulation until 1969. So when the $100 bill became the largest bill in circulation, it had the purchasing power of more than $500 in today's economy.  But the Fed is not going to print any larger denominations. Why not? Well, while most of the $100 bills outside the US are used in legitimate business transactions, it is also used by drug cartels, and I don't think the US government wants to fund illegal drugs any more than it already is.  Remember, those drug lords have to launder those millions and millions of dollars somehow, but until they can, it just piles up. So if the fed started printing $500 and $1000 bills, then the stacks of illegal drug money would be physically smaller and more portable. Third, because of inflation, $100 bills are used more and more in everyday transactions.  Grocery bills for even a small family, can be over $100 dollars.  Dinner for 2 to 4 at a nice restaurant can run about $100. Many electronic devices are several hundred dollars. There are probably many more factors, but no matter how you look at it, soon there will be more $100 bills out there than $1 bills.  What the fed needs to do, is get rid of the $1 bill altogether, and encourage use of electronic transactions even more.  I think EVERYBODY needs to have a debit card or at least a prepaid credit card.  We need to move more quickly to--maybe not a cashless society--but a low-cash society.  We need to get rid of pennies, nickels, dimes, and $1 and $2 bills altogether.  Then move to getting everyone to a cashless transaction status, and significantly reduce the amount of currency that is printed and circulated. Let's get moving!

Obama's Penny and Nickel Proposal

Obama has mentioned the penny and nickel in his budget proposal for 2015. There are several articles mentioning changing the metals used to reduce costs.  Too bad the won't just be getting rid of them all together.  Hopefully, when they realize there is no feasible way to make a penny for less than its face value, Congress will wise up and jettison this colossal waste of time, energy and resources.

Stuff We Do Wrong

So there is a bunch of stuff that we do incorrectly or inefficiently, either because we don't know any better or because we're too entrenched in the way we've always done it and don't want to learn or believe there is a better way.  I found a web article that lists a bunch of them. I would add using pennies to this list.  Just because we've always done it, doesn't mean there's not a better alternative out there.  My goal in life is to get rid of the penny...and also to help everyone peel a banana correctly. ;)

Obsolete Coins

Did you know that in the past, the US has minted half cent, 2 cent, and 3 cent coins?  It's true.  The half cent had various depictions of lady liberty and was minted periodically from 1793 to 1857.  The 2 cent coin was minted between 1864 and 1872 and had a union shield and other varying designs. The 3 cent coin was minted in varying materials from 1851 to 1889 with lady liberty and other designs.  All of these coins were discontinued well over 100 years ago, because everyone understood that coins of these values were not necessary.  So why, more than a century later, are we still minting a 1 cent coin?  It makes no logical sense whatsoever.  Vote now to get rid of it!

Pretty Penny

Here is a song called Pretty Penny by Stone Temple Pilots, though it refers to a girl's name, and not the coin.

If Teardrops were Pennies

Here is a classic country song by Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner

Stephen Colbert and the Penny

The clip with Jimmy Fallon got me looking back at some stuff that Stephen Colbert has done on the Colbert Report and the Daily Show on Comedy Central. Here are a couple links to some funny stuff Stephen Colbert has done with pennies.  link 1 link 2

Jimmy Fallon Tonight Show

A funny thing happened to Jimmy Fallon on his Tonight Show debut on February 17, and it involved a bunch of pennies!  Watch the link to check it out.

A Penny is NOT 1 Cent

Money is a strange thing.  In our economy, prices for goods and services are always changing.  A shirt you bought 3 years ago cost $14.99.  Now that same shirt costs $16.99.  Next week it will go on sale and only cost $13.99.  Gasoline prices change from day to day and from one corner store to the next.  The prices or values for goods and services may go up and down, but the value of a coin or bill is always the same.  A penny is always worth 1 cent.  A nickel is always worth 5 cents.  A dollar bill is always worth 1 dollar.

Now I'm getting around to what I meant in the title of this post.  A penny is worth 1 cent. it is not itself 1 cent, it is only WORTH 1 cent.  The penny represents 1 cent, it is not the 1 cent itself.  It's just like any good or service. Your gallon of gas is WORTH $3.699, but it is NOT actually 3 dollars and 69.9 cents itself.  The only difference between your goods and services you buy, and the bills and coins you use to buy them with, is that the value or worth of the bills and coins never change.  This obviously leads many to confuse the coin as BEING the monetary value itself, when it is not.  After all, you can make purchases without any cash whatsoever.  If you understand this, then you'll understand that removing the penny from circulation, doesn't change anything in regard to the monetary value inherent in the US Dollar.  It only changes into how many smaller pieces we can divide up the US Dollar.

I like to think of pennies like records.  Back in the day, the phonograph was a great invention, and the records you could play on them were awesome.  But then 8-tracks came out, and then audio cassettes.  These were thought superior in some ways because they were much more compact, and were more durable and would not get scratched or skip.  Then compact discs came out and records, and tapes fell by the wayside.  Now in the digital age of instant downloads and portable electronic storage devices, compact discs are becoming obsolete.  You don't see any records anymore not because they are bad, but because there are much better and more convenient options out there.  When people say, "Get rid of the penny," they realize that doing so will streamline our transactions and save tons of time and money.  They are NOT saying that 1 cent has no value, they are just saying that we don't need a coin to represent that value.  It's the same reason we don't need 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, or 9 cent coins.  There is no real use to having coins worth those amounts.  You can blame it on inflation or whatever you want, but the fact of the matter is we do NOT need a coin that represents 1 cent in our modern economy.  Period.

Magic Penny

Here is a children's song written by Malvina Reynolds.

Pennies from Heaven

Here's an old classic performed by Bing Crosby.  Enjoy the nostalgia.

Five Pennies

Here is a "feel good" song performed by Danny Kaye called Five Pennies

Smashing Pumpkins

Here is a less well-known song by the Smashing Pumpkins called Pennies.  Enjoy!

32 Pennies

I'm starting a new series with songs that mention pennies.  Here is the first, 32 Pennies by Warrant.  Enjoy your head banging, hair metal from the late 80's!

Penny Debate

There is a debate going at debate.org on whether we should keep the penny or not.  I put in my two cents.  You can too.

Penny Circle

I found this pretty cool website here. It let's you draw different size circles and predict how many pennies will fit into them.  It also let's you create a formula that will help you predict how many pennies for larger and larger circles.  It's pretty interesting, especially if you like math.