http://www.capitol-college.edu/troxler/essay7.htm [1] Thoughts from Under a Black Hat Be sure to read the other essays in the "[2]Thoughts from Under a Black Hat" series. A Penny for Any Thought The U.S. Mint in Philadelphia stamps out an average of 19.7 million pennies each working day. They make nearly 98.5 million pennies a week or around 5 billion pennies a year. Every year this single plant of the U.S. Mint produces about $50 million worth of pennies. No kidding, the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia makes a lot of cents. [INLINE] There is however, such a shortage of cents in Philadelphia that merchants now ask customers to produce exact change for all transactions. The U.S. Mint says that 5 billion pennies a year ought to be enough cents for any city, even the City of Brotherly Love. The blame for the shortage of cents, according to the Mint, lies with those inconsiderate citizens who hoard pennies in jars, car ashtrays and other innumerable places of no consequence. The Mint said nothing about coins lost under sofa cushions or resting in all those "need a penny - take a penny - got a penny - give a penny" trays that adorn the cash registers of old-style retail merchants. These potentially rich fields of scholarly enquiry remain wide open for sensible professors. In fact, its likely that some major university that needs more cents will get a National Science Foundation grant to examine the causative factors underlying the vanishing cents of government. I am not at all certain that jars and sofa cushions are the cause of the diminished cents of the U.S. Government. In fact, the Internet shows evidence that many citizens wantonly transform nearly worthless government cents into useful things. The website Smashing Pennies is located at [3]http://www.slip.net/~bvldsg/pennies/pennies.html. The site holds an image archive of pennies that have passed through stamping machines that elongate the copper coins and replace the profile of Abe Lincoln with assertions such as "Stratosphere - I Love You - Las Vegas, NV" or "Santa's whiskers need no trimmin', he kisses kids, not the wimmin - Burma Shave - 1947." I must confess that when I was a child, I did not have many cents. However, at times I sacrificed my limited cents upon the local railroad track. I don't know whether it was the mass of a diesel locomotive or the multiple hits from the many wheels on the train, but such an experience crushes cents without leaving any trace of word or image. In those days technology was neither abundant nor sophisticated. Back then it didn't take a great deal of cents to entertain an eight-year-old. I am quite sure these childhood observations of freight trains squashing cents prepared me well to cope with the mass of multiple hits that seem to bear down on a college president. In any event, I am thankful that I did not lose all my cents on the railroad tracks. By the way, true to its image, Las Vegas is trying to get rid of all its cents. They smash quarters in that town. In Vegas, the Starship Enterprise replaces George Washington's likeness on quarters. I suppose this is to boldly go where no cents have gone before. Here is the coup de gras of this tale of cents. Right under the not so sensible eye of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, the cents of the federal government are being smashed. Yes, it's true. At the Franklin Institute, the Betsy Ross House and the Academy of Natural Sciences, visitors may choose among no fewer than twenty dies to quash government cents. I am particularly fond of the die at the Academy that puts the likeness of Albert Einstein on the obverse of the penny and E=mc2 on the reverse of the coin. This is a valuable thing to do to worthless government cents. After all, most of us don't have enough sense to remember that vital formula when we go into the kitchen to cook-up a little thermo-nuclear device. When will the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia regain its cents? Whether hoarding or smashing is the cause of diminishing cents, it makes sense to assert that the American people have better sense than to give two cents for a penny. We do not value the coin. In fact, we loathe the penny. Cents clutter our lives - purses, pockets, jars, trays and sofas are filled with them. Cents do not fill our hearts. Cents are heavy, dirty, unwelcome, nearly worthless monetary tramps that perform little useful work. We hoard them not out of affection for their value, but because we just don't know what to do with them. We smash them, because, after all the image of a great white shark with mouth agape and the text "Monterey Bay, CA - Just when you thought is was safe" is a lot more entertaining than the flat, frontal view of the Lincoln Memorial. Several Congressmen over the years have introduced legislation to get rid of government cents. They don't use many cents on Capitol Hill so these proposals made a lot of sense to a lot of people. These bills would have forced all prices to round up or down to the nearest nickel value. In the end, the copper lobby, traditionalists and the people who make those penny-smashing machines successfully argued against these bills which threatened good cents. It has been more than a century since the Congress has dealt with any cents. They killed the 3-cent piece in 1888. They terminated the 2-cent piece in 1873. They got rid of the halfpenny in 1857. Back then no one could argue the point - Congress acted on half cents. All this means that, with the population of the United States growing, the cents-less merchants in Philadelphia are in for protracted hard-times. Of course, the U.S. Mint could work overtime and create more cents. But government is not likely to increase its cents anytime soon. Penny for your sense? gwt.gif (1400 bytes) G. William Troxler, Ph.D. President Final Ballot Results: 58% of voters always pick up pennies they find on the ground. _________________________________________________________________ Links U.S. Mint: [4]http://www.usmint.gov _________________________________________________________________ Responses welcome: [5]http://webboard.capitol-college.edu/~blackhat Be sure to read the other essays in the "[6]Thoughts from Under a Black Hat" series. © 1999, G. William Troxler All rights reserved. The views expressed in this essay are not statements of the official position or policy of Capitol College on any matter. Dr. Troxler's essay does not necessarily reflect views of the faculty or Board of Trustees of Capitol College. This essay was not reviewed by the faculty or board prior to publication. Dr. Troxler offers his opinions to the Capitol College community as a means of stimulating discussion and prompting the notion that Capitol's students should participate in an education experience that attempts to balance the development of excellent, marketable technical skills with the expansion of peripheral intellect. 1pixblue.gif (41 bytes) [7]home | [8]help | [9]contact capitol spacer.gif (67 bytes) _________________________________________________________________ Capitol College - 11301 Springfield Road - Laurel, Maryland 20708 - 301-369-2800 / 800-950-1992 References 1. http://webboard.capitol-college.edu/~blackhat 2. http://www.capitol-college.edu/troxler/default.htm 3. http://www.slip.net/~bvldsg/pennies/pennies.html 4. http://www.usmint.gov/ 5. http://webboard.capitol-college.edu/~blackhat 6. http://www.capitol-college.edu/troxler/default.htm 7. http://www.capitol-college.edu/default.htm 8. http://www.capitol-college.edu/resources/help.htm 9. http://www.capitol-college.edu/inquire/default.htm