joe randel's art dump

Today I’ve started coin collecting… sort of.  See this year the Canadian Government has decided to stop making pennies.  From what they’re saying, it’s because it actually costs more to make one penny then what it’s worth and a very low percentage of Canadians actually use the penny.  May the  4th marks the day when the very last penny was pressed at the Canadian Mint and since then there all kinds of penny drives to collect as many as you can and donate them to a charitable cause.

I on the other hand have decided to try and collect one penny for each year it was pressed.  I have a small jar in the basement that hasn’t been touched in about 10 years.  So tonight I opened it up and started to see what I had and what I was missing.  Apparently I stopped putting pennies in the jar around 2003 since that’s the more current one in there.  Then they travel back in time each year until the year 1971.  After that I have most of the 60’s and a few 50’s.  The oldest one I have is 1952 (It has the King on it!), but I think I have one at work even older.  It’s neat to think about the history and the travels that the oldest pennies have taken.  Where did they start?  What purchases where they used in.  Everything has a history and I love to imagine them.

Not sure what I’ll do with them really.  I just figured they’d be a cool thing to show any future grandchildren.  Who knows… maybe they’ll be worth something more then a penny one day.  Do you collect anything?