Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-08-28
PENNY Is OUT OF DATE
Not One Has Been Coined in the Phila-
delphia Mint Since $50, But About
100000 Conts-They 60 on
Cesseless Journey.


the word penny. There are no pennies in
the mint, nor have there ever been, al
though great many persons are under the
impression that anywhere from 5,OC,OW to
10000 a month of these useful little CONS
are shipped from this city to the treasury
department at Washington and the various
subtreasures, says the Philadelphia Press. /
Iut these are cents, not pennies; and If
you persist In calling them pennies while
you are talking with one of the clerks in
the mint you are corrected at every step
of the conversation. Pennies they tell
you. have not been used in this country
since the colonial days, when the United
States mint was not in business, To call
cents pennies is regarded as rank Anglo
phobalsm. In technical terms, for use on
the books of the mint and for correspond
ence with Washington, pennies arc called
lone cent bronze pieces" In ordinary con-
versation they are called cents. But pen-
MES, never.
| THE LAST OF THE PENNIES.
| There is a reason, also, for the term
bronze pieces" OF the 1,230, 075sl PEN
mics that have been coined for this gov
ernment at the Philadelphia mint, 1,7SI.-
| S1l were the big copper pennies, many
persons remember in the days of their
boyhood. None have been coined since Is g.
but there are stil l.lS3,a3 of them noat-
1 ing around the country somewhere. Not
! back to the mint for rcCoinage Where
| they have gone to is 4 mystery, rs is the
i ultimate destination of the millions OF
i bronze cents that arc sCattrcd broadcast
4 from the mint every year Pennies are
i very much like pins in the problem of
what becomes of them. They dribhle back
into the mint for reconage in lots of any
where from 81 900 to $1,000 and not very
rapidly at that.
Il Pennies are never recoined into pennies.
They are transformed into nickcls, which
are made of an alloy of % per cent, lickol
and 70 per cent. bronze or copper. SO that
the cent you drop into the slot machine to-
day will have another incarnation and 80
travelling around the country enhanc' d
in value long after you are in your grave.
The copper discs for new cents arc bought
by the arload from firm in Waterbury,
Conn, which has a contract to supply
them. They come already milled and ready
for the stamping machines. When rolled
! along the floor OF the mint in heavy trucks
to get their face value put on them they
are as brilliant as Furnished gold.
You will find more now cents, and, in
fact, all small coins, in Philadelphia than
in any other city in the country, particu-
lary around Christmas time. Tha; is be-
cause they are made here and nowhere
, else. In all parts of the East people have
an aversion to using battered small coins
Il of whatever denomination. They are
taken up and sent back to the mint or else
: transferred to the remote West. where
, there appears to be no limit TO their dura-
ton of service.
Such sorry-lookinf specimens of coins
of the realm as these cents are when the
West has no further use for them They
come back in boxes. battered, bent, de-
faced, and with n general appearance OF
having been very much up against it, as
the saying goes. They look travel-weary
and appear to be sighting for a corner OF
soft plush in curo cabinet instead OF
the smelling pot and a stamped pass FOX
, another journey around the continent
: Like Gilbert's enterprisng burglar. a
; cents life is not happy one.
Asking the average man for n penny is
very much like asking him for postage
! stamp. The chances are he hasn't got It
1t is a matter of record also. that men who
$ sell stamps and postal cards in the Philade.
| phia postoffice give out more pcnnies-it'
easier to say penny than cent-than they
4 take in. The number Of persons who pay
for n tWo-Cent stamp with two cents i:
= very small. AS a matter of fact, the only
n public servants who seem to be ovcrbur
- deued with cents are car conductors ant
= il Is much Of mystery what they do
, with them it is what everybody cls'
/ does with them. they do not turn them il
, at the office at the end of Il days run.
: A CALL FOR DIMES.
Q The demand for pennies at the min
: varies as greatly as the demand for any
other commodity. Just now there are VERY
a few of them being made, rs there is
, sudden call for ten-Cent pieces and thu
+ small presses are busy on that order
=. There are no special presses for pennies
N az the mint Any one of the ten small
coming presses will do for cents or any
other small coin. The heavier presses, o
, course. are for n different lass Of work
About 7O00."u cents a month is a fair aver
. age although during the holiday rush tina
- number is often turned from the pressc
: in a single week In the old mint thcr
were weeks AT tlhe' curing the ho''u,
- ing dav and night to supply the deman
for cents The superb facilities of the new
building make this a thing of the past
l. Before the slot machines came int,
: such unive rsal use the railroad companie
: werc the great collectors of pennies t.
scrd into the subtrcasuries for redemp
ton i'm currency. They usually sent then
i'm hays of 800 each although the sub
treasury did not forward them to tn
mint in such lots NOWADAYS the com
u daily trips to the subtreasury in wagon
a | and hand over tens of thousands of pen
n MES for greerbacks. But only a SINAI
&c proportion of these a"e sent back for lie
% coinage. Those UNIT for use are sorted on
and the others sent off again on thei
ceascess journeys.
y Every day doIen or more persons iror