The penny finally drops?

According to an article I read recently, our overlords are planning on discontinuing production of the physical penny — in other words, they are dropping the penny. Darn right, they are.

“The penny dropped” is an old American phrase that refers to that moment when a person finally understands something they have been confused about for a long time. It makes me wonder if this action will cause more people to realize what some of us have understood (in horror) for a long time: the US fiat money system is a ridiculous house of cards.

Our financial system “runs” on dollars backed by absolutely nothing and that can be created in infinite amounts with the click of a few computer keys. With that being the case, it’s only natural to wonder: why bother spending resources to mint a coin that costs more to produce than it’s worth?

As you ponder that, realize that this fact is true of the nickel as well.

Our coins are just nostalgic tokens. They mimic the form of the real money of our past, when coins were made from precious metals and had value because the metal they contained had value.

Those days are long gone. The clinking change in our pockets is just a hollow echo of a time when coins were worth something. So, it makes a certain amount of cents (see what I did there?) to discontinue production of the things.

Our paper money is even more ridiculous. The bills mimic the form of receipts for precious metal deposited in a trusted bank vault. They’re just papery whispers of things that once represented claims to other things that had actual value. Now our paper bills represent nothing but lies.

The lizard people have been signaling for a long time now that they would like to “drop” the penny. Over the years that they slowly warmed the public up to the idea, I’ve been wondering if the moment they actually did it would be the moment when people would finally realize what a farce this whole system is. If they would realize that much like Wile E. Coyote, we ran off the edge of a cliff a while back and just haven’t looked down quite yet.

The penny dropped, indeed.

As I read the article talking about the US Mint discontinuing penny production, my hope sank that “the public” would wake up once the penny drops. The article was in USA Today, but parts of it read more like something you’d find in an old Highlights magazine — you know, the one for children?

Here’s an example: As the article shamelessly shills for Kevin McColly, CEO of Coinstar:

“Why do we treat coins like trash? McColly thinks we should change the way we think about coins.

To state the obvious, coins are worth money. Coinstar converts $3 billion in coins into spendable cash every year, one coin jar at a time. The average jar yields $58 in buying power.

Most of us don’t realize how much our coins are worth. Thus, a trip to a coin-exchange kiosk (or a bank, or credit union) can yield a pleasant surprise.”

“Coins are worth money”, you see? Nice to know! Thanks, reputable and very popular newspaper for adults!

Here’s another gem from the article. This is so powerful they used it as a sub-heading:

Coins aren't clutter, they're currency

Write that down, folks. Coins are currency.

I shouldn’t mock USA Today. Most of the article actually contained interesting information. They also took the time to point out that pennies and nickels are useful, and that simply eliminating them and “rounding” prices to the nearest nickel (or dime, or quarter, etc) could lead to a slippery slope.

Indeed it could. And probably will. Perhaps then the penny would finally drop in the minds of more Americans. We’ve run off the edge of the cliff, folks. Nothing is holding us up.

Naturally,

Adam

PS: If you have any spare pennies or nickels that you’d like to donate towards your humble scribe, I’d greatly appreciate them. Fiat spends — until it doesn’t.