Out in this cold world alone
Walking around in the street.
Asking a penny for bread
Begging for something to eat (Carter family)
it’s a sign of our times that the humble penny, a symbol of the value for every little thing, is fast becoming obsolete. In less than one year the U.S. mint will stop producing pennies although old pennies will still remain legal tender.
I haven’t got a nickel
Not a penny can I show
He said Get off you Railroad Bum
And he slammed the box car door (Jimmie Rodgers)
It costs more to make a penny now than it does to spend one. The English used to produce a huge penny about three times the size of our own which constituted 1/240th of a pound sterling. When they went to the decimal system in 1971 they happily did away with the humble penny which cost them more to produce than it was worth by far. The English penny was once silver and minted only on Maundy Tuesday to distribute to the poor and elderly.
Traveling down a lonely highway
I knew not where the road would end
Not a penny in my pocket
All alone without a friend (Hank Williams)
Minting costs for the penny have always been a problem. The U.S. minted steel pennies in 1943 to save copper for the war effort. I used to have one of those special pennies and I wish I still did.
Hang on to your pennies all you would be numismatists out there! When the British penny went by the wayside, 1971 pennies suddenly became very collectable. The same phenomenon will no doubt repeat itself when the United States penny becomes history..
Not a shirt on my back
Not a penny to my name
Lord, I can’t go a home this old way
I hope we can still teach our children to appreciate the value of the smallest fruits of honest labor without the noble penny. I’d still stoop to pick up an abandoned penny on the street. (Maybe not a nickel though if my back was hurting).
Electronic transactions have to a large extent replaced paper and coin and they will continue to do so. No collectability there (at least that I am aware of). RIP the penny. You will still live on but who knows for how long?
