How much can you buy for pennies? When I got my first car, a 1969 Nova SS, I could buy gasoline for 25 pennies a gallon. A draft beer could go for 5 pennies. A shotgun shell went for 5 pennies. I remember buying a pack of Eagle Claw fishhooks for 10 pennies. Many people dropped pennies and other coins into our Halloween Trick or Treat bags.
Pennies may have been most valuable to pay for the small state and federal taxes. Today taxes are much bigger. It costs 4 cents to make a penny worth one cent. Not making pennies would save 200 million dollars. Maybe a Nickle is a better choice. Rounding up by fives is easier Math. Our gas prices still reflect taxes in cents.
Back in the day, kids returned bottles, recycled newspapers, and did chores for minimal change. My Dad paid me 25 Cents to dig up a bucket of dandelion weeds. My allowance was 25 cents a week. My Mom made me a birthday cake with money in it. Small pennies, Nickles, dimes, and quarters were wrapped in foil and dropped into the batter. One silver dollar was also in the middle of the sheet cake. I paid for a new Grumman canoe with money from recycling newspaper and had cash left over to pay for summer camp.
When we had a pocket full of change, we felt rich. 50 rounds of 22 ammo were 50 cents. A tube of BB’s was 10 cents. Hooks and bobbers for fishing cost pennies. A dozen worms were 50 cents. We could get our hunting and fishing needs on the cheap and still have coins for candies and maybe soda.
Hunting coins is a great hobby. Metal detectors are used to search for hidden treasures. Pennies also made great spinners! Their weight and shine fit onto our homemade spinners once a hole was drilled into them. We also used the coins as flat weights when we needed sinkers for fishing. A penny also could serve as a fuse at the old hunting camp.
Some pennies are worth big bucks. During some years, certain mints made few coins. A 1909 vdb penny is worth big bucks. During WW2, pennies were made from zinc since copper was needed for the war effort. Wreath pennies are worth more than current pennies since they have more copper than pennies today.
A tube of pennies made a great self defense weapon. Getting smacked in the face with a sock full of coins could stop a bully in their tracks. Stamps were once worth a penny. Shooting pennies thrown in the air with our BB guns was always a challenge. Flipping a coin for Heads or Tails served to solve problems and make decisions.
I still collect pennies and other coins. Some say that we walk past over $1.75 worth of coins a day that are hidden in the dirt. As kids we placed pennies and other coins on railroad tracks to let passing trains crush them. A smasher at the Smithsonian Institute would smush a penny and emboss it with their logo. Pennies could be flipped, tossed, rolled, and used for all kinds of games. Whatever coins I gather over a month, get returned to the bank. I use the old school paper rolls and accurately pack them up. The banks do not trust wrapped coins, so they always dump them out for a recount. International coins are similar and don’t count. Banks are still counting their pennies.
A penny for your thoughts!
Montana Grant
