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.