Since I posted the article earlier “A penny for your thoughts“, Yahoo News has featured an article about the new pennies as well.  Just click on this Yahoo News link to see their take on the whole new penny design.

These undated images provided by the Treasury Department show the reverse sides for the 2009 Bicentennial Lincoln penny. In 2009, the U.S. Mint will put into circulation a series of four different one-cent coins in recognition of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln cent. The obverse, heads side, will remain the same.(AP Photo/Treasury Department)

I read an atricle in the Sacramento Bee today about the new look the penny will be getting next year for the first time in 50 years.  That is what I like about the Bee, real cutting edge information.  With all the financial firsts like the Wall Street bailout proposals, major bankruptcy filings, and government takeovers of large financial based corporations, the lowly penny is still newsworthy.  At least I have to say it was a very positive spin on the new designs the U. S. Mint unveiled of the government’s commemoration for next year’s 200th anniversary of President Lincoln’s birth.

Lincoln Penny

There are a couple of things the Sacramento Bee forgot to mention that I really should bring to your attention.  First of all they didn’t say that by last year’s measurement it costs the government l.67 cents to produce a penny.  That means that even the government can’t buy a penny for a penny.  This lack of value leads some people to the conclusion that the penny should go away.  While I’m not a fan of having a pocket full of pennies, and there really isn’t anything you can buy for a penny (even penny candy costs a nickel), I’m worried that if the penny goes away what’s going to protect the nickel?  And besides that it currently costs the government 9.5 cents to produce a nickel, which is even worse than the penny.

You can see what I mean though, where does the madness stop?  Before you know it there wouldn’t be any coins, and that would lead to a whole new set of problems.  Can you say “inflation”?  What would we put in parking meters?  What would we do to see who kicks off at the football game if there were no coins to flip?  I was about to say what about all those machines in Las Vegas, but you don’t even need coins for that any more, just tokens or dollars.  Look out pennies, you’re doomed!

At another level of concern about our penny and its survival, what would we do for a picture of one of our greatest presidents, at least unless we happen to have five dollars?  What about penny stocks?  And that wise and wonderful saying that Ben Franklin coined, “A penny saved is a penny earned“, how would we explain that bit of history to our children if there were no pennies.  But then again we stopped making the half-cent coin in the U. S. in 1857 and our society weathered that storm.  So if the penny does get replaced by the nickel someday, I know we will be strong and survive that as well.  I just hope some collector of extinct coins wants that jar of pennies I have on the dresser for about a dollar apiece.  Either that or the odds on those lottery tickets need to improve, since all the crazy things happening in the stock market have left my 401K feeling a lot like a half-cent coin.  Long live the penny!

Here are some money thoughts for your listening pleasure by ABBA.  Just click on this link from YouTube.