We don’t want your two cents
More stories from Alexis Mayhue
This is the day to get all those pennies from the bottom of the jar.
Today is the one and only day I’ll say this— go and try your luck at the penny machines.
… Okay, no, don’t do that if you’re under the age of eighteen.
Today, Wednesday, April 1, is One Cent Day.
And no, this is not an April Fool’s joke.
We’ve had pennies in the US since 1793, though they worth much more than a simple cent. Pennies started out at a whole twenty five cents a piece!
“See a penny, pick it up, then all day you’ll have good luck… as long as it’s heads up.”
From sceattas (a small silver coin from the year 680) to shillings (yeah, like what Captain Jack Sparrow uses) to the worlds first copper penny (you don’t really need an explanation, do you?), the world has change greatly.
It all started with a simple coin that said “one penny” to holding the face of Abraham Lincoln. It’s weird to think how much such a simple thing has changed.
President Roosevelt thought it’d be a good idea to make coinage more appealing to the eye. So what did he do? He hired Augustus Saint-Gaudens, of course (click here to see what he actually does and click here to see what his first coin looked like).
And what a good move on the President’s part. These coins were flying off the shelves, so to speak. Lines and lines of people waited outside banks to apprehend these wonderful coins– so many, in fact, that they had to put a limit on how many you were allowed to take.
Who would have thought? Nowadays if you see a penny on the ground you don’t even waste time to pick it up.
But even if you think pennies are worthless and it’d be better to just get rid of them all’s you have to do is wait for physics class. Mrs. Flarend will have you using pennies in ways you never imagined.
