200 years.
That’s a long time to make something. In that 200 years, the penny has adapted. It has different “ingredients” now than before, and even a different design. A penny however, is still a penny. There are 300 billion pennies in circulation. Holey moley that seems like a lot.
What else has changed though? Well, for one thing, the penny costs more to make than it is worth. Retailers say that the announcement of its discontinuation has already caused a shortage.
So what will you do? Will you hoard them? Will you give all yours away? Do you even have any? I know that I, for example, am one of the last holdouts of my peers to continue even using cash. It will be interesting to see what the next few months have in store for our copper Lincoln.
It got me thinking about other things in my life that years ago I would have told you I could never live without and now I don’t miss them at all.
A phone on the wall in the kitchen. Okay, sometimes I miss the freedom that comes with not having to carry a cell phone, but 20 years ago I could have never imagined that I wouldn’t have a land line anymore.
Getting a triptik from AAA. This was a GLORIOUS experience because it meant you were going on a trip (often a vacation). They would give you highlighted paper maps.
Telephone books. I mean how in the world would I find someone’s number if I didn’t have that 3-inch thick book to reference?
Renting movies. I mean for a while this was my Friday night jam. Always having fingers crossed that the new release would be available. Can you imagine if Netflix only had so many licenses for a movie on their streaming service?
Change can be difficult, but it also can bring some amazing innovations.
Related to speech therapy, “back in my day”, the therapist had to teach me, the mom, how to demonstrate sound formations to my child. Now they can watch a video over and over to get those examples. (Yes, we could argue screen time but hopefully you get my point.)
Now too, nonverbal children can push buttons to have a voice speak for them! Imagine the frustration prior to that in trying to express yourself.
I am truly sad to know that I will never see a new shiny penny again. But at the same time, I look forward to what progress this can bring and what other developments arise as the result of it.
