jeff1@garfield.UUCP (Jeff Sparkes) (08/23/85)
Have you ever wondered where all of the pennies go to? There
must have been billions of pennies produced in the last hundred years or
so. I guess that a few get melted down, and some get run over by trains,
but how many pennies have you seen from 1952 lately? I think that there
is either a penny graveyard somewhere where they go to die, or that aliens
have been stealing them to supplement their copper supplies. There is no
way to lose all those pennies is there?
Anybody else have any theories? Maybe someone could look up some
numbers on penny production so we have a better idea of the problem.
Think about it!
Jeff Sparkes
{akgua,utcsri,mcvax}!garfield!jeff1lionel@garfield.UUCP (Lionel H. Moser) (08/23/85)
[ barf gag ] > > Have you ever wondered where all of the pennies go to? > ... > Anybody else have any theories? Maybe someone could look up some > numbers on penny production so we have a better idea of the problem. > > Jeff Sparkes I read in 1981 that it cost the Canadian Government $0.036 to mint one penny! I can't imagine what it costs now. More than a nickel? I always pick up pennies when I see them discarded, because I know that they will need to replaced. I have saved at least a dollar for the government during the past few years. Addendum: In high school, a friend got a reputation as a miser (he was) and some jerks spend the year throwing their pennies near him. He dutifully picked them up, and at the end of the year came to show them his bag of $40.00 of their pennies. The next day he showed them the two ounces ... that he bought with it.
myers@uwmacc.UUCP (Latitudinarian Lobster) (08/31/85)
> > Have you ever wondered where all of the pennies go to? There > must have been billions of pennies produced in the last hundred years or > so. I guess that a few get melted down, and some get run over by trains, > but how many pennies have you seen from 1952 lately? You don't see any pennies from before 1959 because collectors have scarfed them up. Pre-1959 pennies did not have the Lincoln Memorial on the back, but had two shafts of wheat surrounding some other stuff. These are known, bizarrely enough, as ``wheat pennies.'' You don't see dimes or quarters from before 1965 because they're 90% silver. Still, the questions remains...it's been a long time since 1959...where do those pennies go? My theory is that they are collected by pack rats and various species of birds which like shiny objects.
barth@tellab1.UUCP (Barth Richards) (09/05/85)
In a recent posting, Jeff Sparkes asked "Where do all the pennies go?"
and also wanted to know how many pennies there are supposed to be floating
around out there. Well, I checked into this and found that from 1793, when
the U.S. government began minting our national coinage, to 1984 the United
States government has minted:
212,828,893,364 pennies.
The weight and metalic composition of pennies has changed several times over
the last 190 years or so, ranging from 13.48 gm of copper per penny in 1793 to
0.06 gm at present.
Since 1981, the U.S. government has minted some 44 billion pennies, but almost
all of these were the new "plated zinc" variety. In other words, the pennies
are stamped on zinc planchets, and then electroplated with just enough copper
to make them look like they are solid copper pennies, so the amount of copper
used is negligable. (It does, however, mean that they used an awfull lot of
zinc...but that's another matter.)
Anyway, the total amount of copper used to mint those 212,828,893,364 pennies
is staggering indeed:
1,123,857 metric tons (metric ton = 2204.6 pounds)
166 kilograms (kilogram = 2.2046 pounds)
468 grams (gram = .035 ounce [28.57 grams = 1 ounce
<that's an avoirdupois ounce, not troy>])
680.5 miligrams (28,570 miligrams = 1 ounce)
The above figures, of course, do not take into account the fact that many other
countries, most notably Canada and Great Britian, have been making pennies for
a long time as well. Hell, England's been making pennies since King Arthur
stopped breast feeding (age 37) and the word turd was invented (Anglo-Saxon
"tord," circa 500 A.D.).
I've got 12 cents in pennies in my pocket. I don't know how much the rest of
you have, but I'm pretty sure it's not $2,128,288,933.52.
Needless to say, there's certianly an astounding number of pennies to be
accounted for, and a vast amount of copper. Any theories?
Barth Richards
Corporate Communications
Tellabs, Lisle, IL
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-The Earthphl@drusd.UUCP (LavettePH) (09/05/85)
The US Mint might have made two to three hundred billion one-cent pieces (one hundredth of a dollar) but I'll bet it never made a single penney (one twelfth of a shilling) in its entire history except for use in a foreign country. - Phil
phl@drusd.UUCP (LavettePH) (09/05/85)
References: <564@tellab1.UUCP> The US Mint might have made two to three hundred billion one-cent pieces (one hundredth of a dollar) but I'll bet it never made a single penney (one twelfth of a shilling) in its entire history except for use in a foreign country and under contract with that government. - Phil
showard@udenva.UUCP (showard) (09/14/85)
> > > > Have you ever wondered where all of the pennies go to? There > > must have been billions of pennies produced in the last hundred years or > > so. I guess that a few get melted down, and some get run over by trains, > > but how many pennies have you seen from 1952 lately? > > You don't see any pennies from before 1959 because collectors have scarfed > them up. > > Still, the questions remains...it's been a long time since 1959...where > do those pennies go? My theory is that they are collected by pack rats > and various species of birds which like shiny objects. Surely you know the answer to this. Who can forget the classic folk song, lamenting lost coinage: "Where have all the pennies gone? Long time passing Where have all the pennies gone? Long time ago Where have all the pennies gone? Gone to Cleveland, every one When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn? "Where have all the Clevelands gone? ..." --Mr. Blore the DJ who would not die, not even if you paid him -- ...udenva!showard