PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS?
”Now it will be a loonie for your thoughts. Like everything else now, thoughts are much more expensive,” musician Tony Rabalao said of the coin’s demise.
The penny is dead.
After a long battle with inflation and irrelevance, it was killed by a federal budget focused on cost-cutting.
It outlived penny candy, the onedollar bill, the two-dollar bill and the Dominion of Canada. It outlived Sunday as a day of rest. It outlived its usefulness. “There probably won’t be a large part of the Canadian public that will mourn the passing of the penny,” said Dennis Pike, general manager at Canadian Coin and Currency in Richmond Hill.
“They just clutter up peoples’ change jars,” he said.
An estimated 20 billion Canadian pennies are in circulation.
First struck in England in 1858 when Queen Victoria reigned over England and far-flung colonies including Canada, the penny was one of the longest-running coins in Canada, Pike said. It’s worth more dead than alive. Within minutes of the news being made public, sellers on ebay were auctioning 2012 uncirculated onecent Canadian coins for $1.50 each —$1.51 (U.S.)
They won’t likely ever be worth much to collectors, Pike said. There are simply too many in circulation. Common, used Victorian-era Canadian pennies sell for as little as $3. Uncirculated, they start at $50. One in superb condition can fetch $2,000 and up.
The 1967 cent with the rock dove — more commonly known as a pigeon — minted to celebrate Canada’s centennial, is worth one cent because more than 345 million were made.
“Everybody saved them because they were different,” Pike said.
“It was an excellent series, the art was fantastic. They just made too many,” he added. There are exceptions. In 2007, a lovely and rare Canadian 1936 “dot” cent sold at auction for $400,000 (U.S.)
When Edward VIII abdicated the throne to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson, the Canadian Mint was caught off guard.
They had no image prepared of his successor, George VI, to use on the penny. So they used the dies from 1936, marking the 1937 pennies with a dot. They never went into circulation. Only three are known to exist.
Once made of golden-red copper, the penny today is made of mostly steel — lightweight and vaguely unpleasant to touch. They leave a strong metallic smell on the hands.
They collect, unwanted and unloved, in jars at cash registers.
Killing the penny will save taxpayers $11 million.