The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-14
PENNIES OBTAINING DIGNITY.
The Unpretentious Coin Invading
New Fields.

From the Anaconda standard)
Is Butte going to be one-cent town
There are some Indications that Butte is
drifting that way, and there are some
business men of Butte who prophesy that
within year the copper penny will be in
general circulation in the city of Butte.
1t wasn't so many years ago that the
two-bit piece was the smallest coin that
circulated in this neck of the woods, and
Butte got along very prosperously as a
town in which there was no circulating
medium OF dess denomination than %
cents. Gradually nickels and dimes came
into circulation, and now there is a
strong probability that before long the
copper cents will be jingling in the pock-
cts OF Butte's citizens and will be given
over the counters of Butte business
houses in change.
What makes this innovation probable is
the fact that several of Butte's business
houses in the past year or two have in
augurated the scheme of selling goods
with an odd" price-that is to say, they
have inaugurated the 9S and As cent meth
cd of catching trade from these who look
close at a bargain. Now when one of
these Butte houses sells certain arti-
Gle for 4Sc cents and receives a half dol
lar in payment for 1t, the house does not
give the customer copper cent but in
stead gives the customer a little envelope
which on being opened is found to con-
tain common 1-1ent postage stamp. Ia
case cents in change is coming to the
customer an envelope containing 2-cent
postage stamp, and SO on So far as
known no business house has yet inaug-
urated the plan of giving pennies. yet 1t
is manifestly more convenient to handle
pennies than to handle the postage
stamps.
Another indication that the pennies are
soon TO be here is found in the fact that
pennies are more and more frequently
rendered at the postofice in exchange for
postage stamps. Probably the customers
know that the Government cannot refuse
to accept any coin of the realm. even
though 1t be OF copper, while 1t would be
difficult matter to have the eoppers ac-
cepted anywhere else. 1t is the custom of
the postoffice, too, when it has any of
these eoppers on hand TO give them out in
change, instead of giving an odd one-cent
stamp, when necessary TO make the requi-
site change.
The banks of the city frequently get the
copper pennies in one way and another,
but il has not been their policy to ever
give out pennies in change The banks
now, as always, throw of the odd cent or
the odd two cents, and charge up as five
cents the odd three or four cents When
pennies get into the bank they are placed
in the vault and allowed TO accumulate.
II the banks Of Butte put into circulation
all the copper pennies they have accumu-
lated there would be quite a spTinkling
of copper pennies n Butte, without the
necessity Of the Importation Of a carload
or two of them.
Every visitor to Butte from the East
and almost every Butte man returning
from trip East brings back in his peck
ct one or more copper pennies. and these
add to the total of coppers now en- hand
in the city ready TO be put into active
as soon as some merchant ad-
vertises that he will give pennies out in
change at his store.
There will be general regret when the
copper cent gains its foothold in Butte.
but it is bound to come, and when here il
can never be eradicated But II is bound
to come. 1t is more persistent than the
Russian thistle. The copper penny has
nearly completed the conquest of the
great West From Chicago it Travelled to
Omaha and st. Paul Firmly intrenched
in St Paul as a basis of operations, il
has been slowly but surely conqucring It's !
way toward Montana. 1t flooded western
Montana and then penetrated the Dako- !
tas Information is that 1t has gained a
foothold in eastern Montana and can be |
seen occasionally as far into Montana as
Billings and Livingston. Furthermore, |
the copper penny jumped from the East |
clear to the Western coast and can be |
found in several of the coast towns. Thus |
the small remaining territory in which /
the copper penny is still unknown is /
threatened by invasion from both the East !
and the West. Butte will have to make !
its mind to accept it later, if not sooner |