Southernisms: A Penny For Your Thoughts

Of all the times for Trump to pull another one of his ill-conceived shenanigans, he chose the week of Abraham Lincoln's birthday to announce that he was ordering the U.S. Treasury Department to stop minting our beloved and humble penny. Trump does not actually have the authority to do this because Congressional approval is required to authorize changes in the production of U.S. coins. But, as our Congress seems to march in lockstep with whatever hair-brained idea, edict or appointment he dreams up, the penny will likely soon become obsolete. The reason we are given is that it actually costs 3.7 cents to make a single penny.

The bronze Lincoln one cent coin was first manufactured in 1909 to honor the 100th birthday of perhaps the greatest president this country has ever known. When they were first minted, our penny was almost 100% copper. After a while, the rising price of copper made pennies more valuable if they were melted and sold for scrap metal! Thus the composition was drastically changed over the years. In 1943, the diversion of copper to the war effort led to the 1 year production of those unpopular (and now very rare) steel pennies. Today's pennies are 97.5% zinc with only the very thinnest coating of copper on the outside. While the history, technical aspects, and politics of the penny are most fascinating to study, I'd like to explore its very ingrained presence in our daily lives, language, and literature.

Penny Wise and Pound Foolish

This idiom refers to someone who spends more time watching after their "pennies" (saving small change) when wasting or losing a lot more money otherwise. The origin is obviously English, as both pennies and pounds as currency are English in origin. (This does, however, not include the horrible demon called Pennywise in the Stephen King novel, 'IT').

In merry old England, "spending a penny" means going to the restroom. And, as in the Beatles song, there really is a Penny Lane... a well known street located in Liverpool.

You can be a miserly "penny pincher." You can play a game of poker somewhere for "penny-ante" stakes. You used to be able to purchase "penny candy." You can wear "penny loafers" and put those lucky pennies in your shoes.

You can purchase something expensive which cost you a "pretty penny." You can name your daughter "Penny" ... and there are many ladies I know by that name until this day!

If out of the blue you are lucky enough to receive a windfall of unexpected money it is called getting "pennies from heaven" just as the famous song says.

In the children's book The Story of Chicken Little you can read all about the character 'Henny-Penny' who was certain that the sky was falling when something fell and hit her on the head.

At almost any tourist trap you can find a penny-pressing machine which for a small fee will squeeze your red cent into an elongated souvenir of your visit.

In some cultures pennies are used to make a gesture of respect or remembrance. Even in modern day cemeteries you might find pennies placed on gravestones of departed loved ones. In the distant past, pennies were often placed on the eyes of the deceased to keep them closed.

The tradition of giving a "LUCKY PENNY" is still observed in Ireland where giving the gift of "Luck Money" always sends best wishes for marriage or having a new baby.

There are also very practical uses of a penny such as checking the depth of your tire's tread. If you insert the coin with Lincoln's head pointing down and the tread covers part of his head, your tires are in good shape! In a pinch, you can also use a penny to turn screws.

Here is an amazing trick to play on someone about a penny... ask a friend which they would rather have, a million dollars or the value of one penny doubled every day for 30 days. Unless they smelled a mouse, most people would immediately choose the million dollars. But the mind-blowing truth is that one penny doubled every day for 30 days would grow to $5,368,709.12 in only one month! How about that for a demonstration of the exponential power of compounding interest?

Find a Penny, Pick It Up... All Day Long You'll Have Good Luck

Then there is the belief that finding a penny on the ground face-up is a sign of good luck. Some people believe that finding a penny tails-up is not such a lucky thing, and that you should flip it over and leave it to bring luck to the next fellow who happens to find it.

Many hold that finding a penny is no accident, that it is a sign given to you from a deceased relative, that all is well with them.

I confess that I have saved pennies all my life and will continue to do so until their supply is exhausted and there are no more in circulation. I never did so for any particular reason, but my husband Robert Bitter had something of a penny fetish. If he found a penny, he would place it in a special little antique porcelain box on his dresser. When we would go on any trip, he would always carry a few of his lucky 'found' pennies along and he would place one in the crotch of a tree at our destination or even perhaps in a crevice of a brick wall. He always made sure they would not be seen by passersby, so they would not ever be removed. His tradition was that if you left a lucky penny behind, then you would always return to that place someday to reclaim it. Gosh, he left pennies everywhere... at the Seabee Base on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, at a beautiful lonely beach in Hawaii, in an Alcatraz prison cell wall (??), in a gigantic redwood tree in the Muir Woods near San Francisco, very appropriately at the Lincoln Memorial and in some of the Japanese Cherry Trees in D.C., and in a crack in the wall of his old high school in Monroe, Nebraska and so many more.

There was one penny-leaving place that gave me something of a chill though. We loved to go each October with our beloved Tommy Covington to the International Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. At each visit, Robert would leave a penny in the forks of one of the small trees growing in a neat row by the railroad tracks and near our favorite restaurant. At every fall's storytelling adventure we would check on Rob's pennies and add more. The year after Robert's death, I went with Tommy and some other friends to "Storytelling" in Jonesborough. I cried when I saw that the beautiful row of trees where Rob's pennies had been left were all gone... making way for - guess what?... more parking spaces! No trees, no pennies, and no Rob!

Heads or Tails???

If Trump gets his way, then the 'plug nickel' will likely be the next coin to disappear and so goodbye to old Thomas Jefferson except on the $2 bill which no one ever sees these days. After all, it is said to cost over 15 cents to manufacture one nickel.

Where will it all end? It is my belief that 'the Donald' would have as his ultimate goal getting his own image on some form of U.S. Currency. With inflation as it stands today, perhaps his face on a $1,000 note will be in our future!

Dearest Henny-Penny, sometimes I also think that the sky is falling.

A penny for YOUR thoughts???