‘Centimental’ artwork
Museum chronicles penny’s history
Canada’s pennies might be out of production and soon won’t be necessary for cash transactions, but they still have at least one use — as art.
A two-metre-high mural in the shape of a penny at the Currency Museum of the Bank of Canada celebrates the legacy of the coin. It’s made up of more than 16,500 individual pennies, or $165.
“It’s pretty amazing,” said museum visitor Sheldon Dankner about the mural, as he tried to guess how many pennies there were.
Melting, breaking up or using legal tender as anything other than currency is illegal under the Currency Act and the Canadian Criminal Code.
But since the penny is no longer being produced and businesses are being asked to return pennies to be melted and recycled, the coin is fair game as an artistic tool.
The mural is part of the museum’s small exhibit on the coin, called CENTimental Journey, chronicling the history of the penny from 17th-century France to the present day. The exhibit showcases different pennies used between 1693 and 2012, and prominently features the last penny struck by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty last May.
The federal government announced last March that it would end production of the penny, which cost 1.6 cents to mint.
The exhibit opened Jan. 15 and runs until July 2.