The American penny passed away quietly last year on November 12, after a prolonged illness. It was 238 years old.
We all knew it was coming, yet it
still feels like the end of an era.
Once the smallest coin in our wallets
by value, the humble penny outlived its sibling, the half‑penny, by a
remarkable 168 years.
It’s survived now by the nickel, dime,
quarter, and those elusive half‑dollar and dollar coins we only seem to
encounter on rare occasions.
Why, you might ask, would something so
small, so seemingly insignificant, be retired? The answer is simple and hard to
argue with: it costs nearly four cents to produce a coin worth only one.
And yet…
I am old enough to remember when a
penny meant something. When it had value beyond its copper weight. When there
was penny candy, and parking meters, and a whole collection of sayings that
stitched the penny into our everyday language:
Find a penny, pick it up…
A penny saved is a penny earned…
We slipped them into our shoes for wedding‑day luck. Tossed them into fountains with whispered wishes. Tucked them into jars, trays, and palms like talismans. Some pennies brought luck. Some carried love. Some were simply kept because it felt wrong to let them go.
Which leaves me wondering:
What happens to all those sayings now?
What do we offer instead of a penny
for your thoughts?
How do we wish someone luck without a
small copper coin to press into their hand?
Maybe the penny disappears from our
pockets.
But it doesn’t have to vanish from our
hearts.
Romance is made of small things that
carry big meaning:
The coin in your shoe.
The cent on a café floor that felt
like a sign.
The last penny tossed into a
fountain—just in case.
Now the penny will live on in our stories and our books. We can write of lucky pennies. Of lost ones. Of the ones you kept.
So I’ll ask you...
What’s the most meaningful penny
moment you’ve ever had?
A penny for your thoughts. 💛
