Arizona republican., 1920-04-12
By FREDERIC J. HAskiN


 ! WASHINGTON, April 7.-Phe pub ! lie now uses 50 times as many small | coins as it used half a decade ago. It l would not be a great surprise to dis 1 cover an increase of 10 per cent or | 25 per cent in the use of nickels, dimes | and pennies; but the fact that their
 use has been multiplied by half q hundred is hard to account for.
 The facts with relation to the use of pennies are obtainable at the treasury 1 department in Washington. 1t is to | the treasury that the public comes for | it's coin. People doing business that requires the making of change apply | to their banks for pennies, nickeis, dimes and quarters. The banks, that they may furnish this subsidiary coin, ask the treasury, or the sub treasury, for enough of it to keep their stock up to the demand. The treasury, always responsive to demand, keeps enough of it minted to meet all calls
 The records of the treasury show that for eight years, including 190S- 1915, the banks asked for and received 1,000, 900 pennies. This was four mill lion a year
 It is in comparison with this pigmy figure that the record of the last few months is so surprising. Since last July the public has been demanding and receiving about 60.000,D00 pennies a month. It has been using fifteen times as many of them in a month as it formerly used in d year.
 Luxury Tax Did dMit
 The chief agency that has led to this prodigious use of pennies is the revenue act of year ago, supple mented by that modern entertainment. the motion picture show The tax on admissions to these entertainments re- quired the breaking down of the final | nickel in change nearly every time any man, woman or child bought a ticket to-a movie. Then there were similar taxes to be paid when one bought soft drinks, cigars-any of those articles which, under the law. ! were Iuxuries. The newspapers of the | nation have doubled in price. requir 1 ing more pennies to handle the busi- | ness. Street car fares. for d genera | ton so universally cents each, have | found a level in most cities between. , and 10, and this again breaks up a | nickel and necessitates the use of pen | nies. The resulting penny boom has been most remarkable.
 New and interesting situations have developed as a result. There used to be a third of the United States, from the standpoint of area, which insisted | on ignoring the existence of the penny. Beyond the great plains an open handed citizenship refused to have anything to do with change smaller than the nickel. But the present reve- nue law has made the use of pennies III the west. I0e picture | shows, the drug stores, the collectors of luxury taxes out west have been to split the nickels just as is done on the Atlantic sea board The penny has been forced into general use in the Rockies and beyond for the first time.
 A Mountain of Pennies
 It is interesting to take the measure 7 ,f this penny flood that is sweeping ,ver the land. It takes 120 pennies to weigh a pound. On this basis. a months coinage of 60,000,000 pennies would weigh 500,0 ,000 pounds. This would load 125 big drays- To haul ears output of pennies would require train of freight cars half a mile ong. There is not q railroad engine n the world that could pull it up a
 per cent grade.
 Pennies are 95 per cent copper and i've per cent tin and zinc, which latter materials decrease their tendency to orrode. pound of the resulting al- Oy costs about 9 cents, and the coin $ valued at $120.
 Though the pennies register the big.i increase in small coins used there has