The Otherside: A penny saved (isn't worth much)

My hatred of the penny began years ago. I found them smelly, useless and annoying. My love for the penny began today, and I found out I wasn't alone.

The US Mint is pretty fond of them too, and they recently announced stiff penalties for anyone who wants to melt them down. And sell them for scrap.

Yeah, like you, I thought "who would bother?" The answer is a lot of people. 

"The rising commodity prices of copper, nickel and zinc have increased the value of the metal in both pennies and nickels so that the content of these coins now exceeds their face value," the U.S. Mint said last week. "There is concern that speculators could remove pennies and nickels from circulation and sell them as scrap for profit."

These new rules, first introduced last december and made final this month mean that if you try to melt your pennies  (and nickels), you could be fined up to $10,000 and sent to prison for up to five years. It's also illegal to take the coins out of the country, except for "pocket change." 

Honestly, I never considered melting my pennies and then selling the scrap to the highest bidder. When I as younger, I usually just tossed them in the trash can, drawing the ire of my mother. These days I usually give them away, and if I can't, I just drop them.

But--my new found love notwithstanding--the logical question here is, if logic is allowed, is why keep these coins around if they're worth less than their production cost?

Great minds do think a like, and I'm not the first to ask the question. 

Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) tried to get rid of the penny in 2002 with the Legal Tender Moderization Act, but failed. The bill didn't even make it to the floor for a vote, but that didn't stop him from trying again with the COIN Act last year. That bill died in committee.

It seems, surprisingly enough to me, that people actually like the penny. CNN reported public opinion polls are in favor of keeping the coin around. Economists predict high prices without it (assuming merchants will round up to the next highest denomination). Some are just plain nostaligic.

I'm not one of them. My affair with the penny is all business. It started this morning when I was standing in line behind a student at a campus store. The cashier asked him if he wanted his two pennies back and I expected a no. Instead, he said "Yes. They already get enough of my money." He slipped the two coins into his pocket and walked away.

I thought, that's dumb. Like the school will miss your two cents. No pun intendent, but anyway I started thinking. Those pennies probably add up. If I had all the coins I tossed to the ground or pawned off on friends or dropped in the garbage, well, I could be like Paris Hilton without the reality show. Or the dog.

I mean, I'm not wrong about the penny. It makes your hand smell. You need a lot of them to have any value, but who wants to carry a mason jar full of coins around just to pay for a value meal at Taco Bell? It's not like you pay for parking with them or even get a can of soda for a vending machine.

The penny is one useless coin--unless you save it. Somehow, I think Ben Franklin had a good idea.

So, my new thing is saving pennies. In a jar. In my room. That way I avoid the inconvenience of trying to use them for everyday trade, my hands won't smell and I won't draw the attention of the US Mint's penny police.

I  might, just might--even get a little closer to my cruise.

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Justin McLachlan, News Correspondent

Justin's column, The Otherside, published once a week to Gather Essentials: News breaks original stories the mainstream media hasn't found yet and looks at the stories being talked about by real people like you. 

You can find all of Justin's The Otherside columns at http://gather.com/theotherside

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