A Penny For Your Thoughts Costs Two Cents! – ‘National One Cent Day’

Today we celebrate the penny. Or, if not celebrate the coin, we highlight its existence as it is, ‘National One Cent Day’. What is one cent good for? Certainly not for buying a penny candy anymore as most counter top candies are now a dime to a quarter. Pretty much the only use I can see for a penny is to make exact change.

Aside from using a penny to make exact change, what are pennies good for? You can put them on railroad tracks and watch a train flatten them. If you can find any, there are machines that press a tourist logo on to your penny. To use one of those crank machines however usually costs a quarter. I think they may still have one at the Maine Diner in Wells.

You can use the penny to check your tire tread. You can use one to flip for heads or tails. You can collect them. Anyone have any of those really old wheat pennies? Some of those can be worth quite a bit.

Fiscally it makes no cents. Get it, cents (how punny). However, the penny is important when it comes to a 6% sales tax. You can’t really make the economy base-five if you’re paying six cents on each dollar.

I know Canada axed the penny because there like here it costs more than a penny to make a penny, actually about twice the amount.

Should we stop pressing pennies as well?