Some thoughts on penny’s paradox
Pity the poor penny.
Amid a three-week torrent of executive orders that’s spawned lawsuits and tumult across the nation and world, President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. Mint to put the pinch on producing our nation’s most plentiful currency.
Trump’s been on a roll in trying to cut the cost of government, something that’s been money for the news cycles since his inauguration.
To do that, he’s placed the world’s richest man — Elon Musk, who’s worth more pennies than I can count in a lifetime — in charge.
Though there’s no proof that Musk has targeted the copper-clad currency just yet, Trump is making bank that the move would save money.
I read about the proposal in a local auto service center waiting room the other day, so I decided to give the penny’s predicament some thought.
After all, the smallest unit of our national cash system has been around for a long time. It’s become part of our everyday lives and culture.
Benjamin Franklin talked about its importance in “Poor Richard’s Almanack” when he wrote “A penny saved is a penny got.”
In folklore, “See a penny, pick it up and all day you’ll have good luck,” stemmed from the belief that finding a penny signaled prosperity and good fortune.
Many of us have tossed a penny into a fountain, hoping for good fortune in return. In a way, I guess that might be true — especially for the person charged with picking up all that small change when the vessel was drained for cleaning.
There was “Pennies from Heaven,” a Depression-era song that earned countless pennies for entertainers like Bing Crosby and Shenandoah native Jimmy Dorsey.
Another take on currency from above comes from the belief that finding a stray penny in an unexpected place was a sign someone sent from the Great Beyond. I’ll have to admit, I’ve experienced that phenomenon after the passing of both my parents. Both children of the Depression, maybe it was their way of saying all was well with them in the afterlife.
And for those of my generation, “Penny Lane” was a mega-hit for The Beatles, arguably the best rock group of all time.
We’d pitch pennies when a carnival came to town, in hope of hitting it big. Sometimes, we’d use them as a quick fix for a blown electrical fuse.
I remember penny candy at the local mom-and-pop store. Gumballs, Mary Janes, Red Hot Dollars and the like were staples of my younger days.
We’d often save pennies until the piggy bank was full, then spend an evening or so at the kitchen table, counting and rolling them before they found their way to a local bank and were exchanged for larger denominations — hopefully of the paper variety.
But that’s when pennies meant something.
Lately, pennies aren’t worth the zinc they’re pressed from.
In fact, depending on who you’re talking with, a penny costs between two and four cents to make.
Yet every year, more are made.
A New York Times Magazine article calls it the “Penny Paradox.” It estimated there were some 240 billion pennies stashed somewhere in the nation. That works out to a little more than $7 for each American.
We take them because we’re entitled to them when we pay for something with a price that’s not divisible by five.
They’re in couch creases and coat pockets, rarely used to pay for something and placed back into circulation.
So the government makes more. And more.
And the cost of producing, transporting and enabling use of our most common currency continues to spiral out of control.
It could be different, though.
We might change pricing structures to round costs up or down to eliminate the physical need for pennies. Canada did it back in the 1990s and sometimes costs increased by a few cents for cash-payers. Other times, they decreased. Electronic transactions weren’t affected. Computers don’t need to make change.
Though it’s been tried here before and failed, if Trump goes in for a penny, in for a pound, I wonder if the outcome would be penny wise or pound foolish?
It’s time for some common sense about our common cents. Any suggestions?
A penny for your thoughts?
After all, I just shared my two cents.
ED SOCHA | tneditor@tnonline.com Ed Socha is a retired newspaper editor with more than 40 years’ experience in community journalism.
The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.