The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-07-29
THE VANISHING PENNIES.
Governments Yearly Output Large,
but Coins Disappear Rapidly.

Will those who have vainly tried TO
tell where all the pins 60 be more sue
csssful with this problem; What be-
comes Of all the pennies?
Penny. goes after penny,
Till Peter hasn't any.
So runs the proverb, but it carries no
explanation Even the men at the gov
eminent minis are hay on the subject.
A short time ago it was decided to sub
stitute the image Of Abraham Lincoln
for the indian head on the penny coin
age, and announcement was made that
the Indian pennies would soon disap-
pear from circulation.
Where viii they go? is the question.
They won't be called i'm by Uncle Sam,
that much is certain. They won't be de-
Hbe~atelv thrown away, because, liter
ally speaking people don't throw away
coins however small their value may
be: but all the same they are going TO
vanish by devious channels. Some, a
good many, perhaps. viii be lost through
cracks and holes and in dark places.
others may be used i'm the arts; hum
dreds, possibly thousands or tens Of
thousands, will be locked up in chill
dren's savings banks or kept as SOU
venirs. for. be il remembered, you
should give a penny with every pair OF
scissors to your best girl, else love VIII
be cut. You might suggest other rest
ing places for pennies without solving
the problem.
Pick up half a dozen pennies, exam
inc their dates of issue, and the chances
are the oldest will be ten years. Yet
the Philadelphia mint, which coins all
the bronze pennies, sometimes sends out
as much as 81 000O worth of 1-cent
pieces in year TO the trade Ccnters of
the country. Think of that-l00, 000,0
penniesl Put them fiat, edge to edge, in
a straight line. and they would reach
more than LOO miles. NOtWithStand-
ing the constant OutpouT of the coins.
there are places in which a penny is
actually a rarity. I'm the mountain dis
tricts of the south men still talk about
shiIliugs-"York shillings,' value 12le
cents-when making a trade, but never
about pennies. because they do not see
or handle them. Even in the towns few
pennies circulate-tTadesmen have moth
ing to offer for penny; a nickel is the
smallest coin they recognize.
West Asks for Pennies.
The same fact holds true in some
parts Of the west. but recently the west
has been calling for pennies, and finan-
ciers see i'm this demand encouraging
signs of frugality which have possibly
resulted from the long period Of business
depression.
In the east people have a better real
iZatiOn of that sound prUverb: Take
care of the pence: the pounds will take
care of themselves Not 50 much the
people who have pennies TO spend as
those who have schemes for gathering
the useful medium in large quantities.
ceived to attract this coin from the
pockets of the careless. There is, for
instance. the penny candy-the bar Of
chocolate with creamy insides, the pink
sugar disk, favored with wintergreen;
the seductive cocoauut cake. the imita-
ton fig. the peanut brittle, the chewing
gum. and a dozen other cOnfeCtions that
shall he nameless-all heaped i'm allur-
ing array upon the counters Of ferry
houses, railroad stations and the booths
of skyscraper arcades.
The best of men. not to mention wo-
men. succumb to the penny candy habit
They acquire it while waiting for trains
and ferries. and they. like victims of
more demoralizing habits, go TO many
ends to satisfy their desire. They never
travel without pennies, they are glad
when conductors give them five of the
coins instead of a nickel in change, and
they frequently miss trains because they
cannot resist the temptation to buy
something sweet for a penny while
rushing through the railroad station.
Sometimes a slot machine fails to work
at a critical moment, and then, having
lost his coin. the man sweaTs inwardly
that he is going to give up the habit.
but the following day finds him en-
shaved again.
He says 10 himself: THAT bar of
chocolate is sufficiently nourishing to
revive me after a gruelling day in town.
and why shouldn't / have something to