The Similkameen News Leader
Editorial
April 15, 2008
A PENNY SAVED...
My mother phoned me the other night. I'm not sure what the main reason for the call was, but I do remember her asking me what I thought was an off-the-wall question, which really had nothing to do with the rest of the conversation.
She asked me about the collection of pennies I've had for about twenty years.
Apparently she saw something on the news the other night that had to do with the cost of producing pennies and the number of people who just happen to have a bunch of them stashed away for a rainy day.
In actual fact, I'm not sure how my collection of pennies started. I've always had a habit of emptying out my pockets full of change once I got home each day. Sometimes the pockets are empty, other times there's some change. The silver usually goes in one jar while the pennies end up in the
'stash'. That container is just about full now and if I had to guess I'd say it weighs about 15-pounds and I don't even want to guess how much those pennies would total if cashed in.
But you know, with the cost of everything from gas and power to food and groceries going up and wages not keeping up you have to think that maybe stashing away a few hundred dollars worth of pennies might not be such a bad idea.
Maybe there's going to be a 'fresh air' tax implemented on that bad habit of mine known as living. In order to continue to exist, I need air. I am accustomed to, and prefer to inhale relatively clean air. Maybe I'll have to pay something for the right to continue to breath air that reaches the standard I'm used to.
Maybe by that time I will have collected all the pennies ever minted, creating a shortage, which would drive the value of the 456.7-zillion pennies stashed in my house, buried in my yard and sitting in a jar worth a small fortune. Or at least more than if I really decided to take the next 12 years off so I could roll them to take to the bank.
Come to think of it, that would be far more work than it's worth. Maybe I should have been stashing quarters.
