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December 09, 2004
Pennies in my Pocket
Every once in a while the change builds up in my pocket and it gets bulky, so I thin it out by removing the pennies. I usually save all of my pennies for about a year then go to the bank and exchange them all for paper cash. That’s kind of a fun treat and feels like I’m getting some free spending money. Although I have these pennies available to spend at any time, usual they are not enough to buy anything useful while we are carrying them around in our pockets. Even a soda or candy bar in a vending machine is more than 65 pennies worth, which I’d never carry in my pocket at once. So I save them and they add up over time.
When I pull the pennies out of my pocket I always scan for wheat pennies and save those so I don’t spend them. They are worth about 3-5 cents apiece I think for collectors. But I just save them because they are kind of unique and it’s fun to see them. I still see a few of them in circulation even though they are so old, but now days there are a lot less.
Today when I pulled out my change I decided to take a closer look at these pennies. Here are the facts related to my pennies, from my observation:
1. I had nine pennies in my pocket, which I’ve accumulated since last Friday. That’s seven days worth of spending money and receiving change.
2. None of the pennies had the same date. The dates were 1964, 1970, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1985 and 1993.
3. Three of the pennies did not have the letter “D” stamped on them. This I believe is for the Denver Mint, where they were created. The three without the letter “D” are the 1973, 1976 and 1981.
4. The three middle dates are even numbers, 1974, 1976, and 1978.
5. All nine pennies were made after I was born (barely)
6. The largest gaps between dates are between the first and second and the eighth and ninth.
7. All of the pennies appear to be made of copper however every penny after the first two, 1973 and later, appear to have a slightly more reddish tint to them. The first two, 1964 and 1970 are worn the most. All of the other ones appear to have very similar wear.
8. The shiniest and the darkest penny are the last two. For some reason, the 1985 is the darkest of all of them, and the 1993 is the shiniest.
9. All of the coins, even though minted at different times, appear to use the same font and text size, even for the numbers which change.
10. One side of the Penny has a right-side profile view of President Abraham Lincoln from the chest up. Also on this side of the coin are the date and the Mint location if there is one. The letter “D.”
11. On the other side of the coin is an image of the Lincoln Memorial, which is located in Washington D.C., and the denomination of ONE CENT.
12. There are 15 or 16 words on the penny, including the Date and the Mint Mark, “D” for Denver.
13. The words on the coins are: IN, GOD, WE, TRUST, LIBERTY, UNITED, STATES, oF, AMERICA, E, PLURIBUS, UNUM, ONE and CENTS. Then also there is a date and if it has the Mint Letter, the letter “D”
14. All of the letters are capitalized except for the letter “o” in “UNITED STATES oF AMERICA”
15. There are two languages on the pennies, English and Latin.
16. No word is used more than once.
17. There are nine words on the side of the penny with the Lincoln Memorial.
18. Abraham Lincoln has short wavy hair and a beard with no moustache.
19. Abraham Lincoln is wearing a suit jacket with a shirt that has a collar on it and a bow tie.
20. Abraham Lincoln is not wearing glasses or a hat.
21. The edge of the penny is smooth with no ridges.
22. The edge of the penny is raised slightly from each face of the coin. (the images are inset slightly)
23. The picture of the Lincoln Memorial is more horizontal, going from the left edge to the right edge, while the picture of Abraham Lincoln is more vertical going from the top the bottom.
24. Abraham Lincoln was not smiling or frowning in this image. It appears to be a straight face.
25. The 1978 penny had grease caked in the letters, “ONE CENT”. The other eight pennies were clean of debris.
Wow, I never knew I could make that many statements about a penny, and that doesn’t even include what I could say about them if I compared them to other change in my pocket or to events that happened to me during the years these coins were put into circulation. Also, I do not know where these pennies have been or for what they have been used. I do not know how long they had been saved by someone else or when they were cashed in and put back into circulation. I do not know why these facts are the way they are or how they came about. I probably could learn a lot more about the penny if I did some research. For instance, who designed it and why Abraham Lincoln was chosen for the penny? I do know that each penny has a value that I can use to purchase something.
Often we make observations about people, and there is a lot we can know about them just by looking closely. Look at what I did just looking at nine pennies in my pocket! And people are much more complex and unique from each other than pennies. There are probably millions of observations we could make about people. But there is also a lot we do not know from just observation. We should get to know each other better. However, we don’t have to know each other in depth to understand that we all have a value, like these pennies. Like the penny, our value together is greater than an individual penny. If we are more valuable together than individually, isn’t it a good idea to stop separating ourselves and find ways to bring people together for the greater good? Unlike pennies, which are the smallest denomination of currency in this system, People are the largest denomination, with the most value. Just think what we could do by all working together!
Posted by carl1236 at December 9, 2004 04:30 PM | Love your Neighbor