As economists and eagle-eyed news junkies are aware, there’s been a hot debate raging for years over whether or not keeping the penny in circulation is worth the cost of making them. For many citizens, the question is unlikely to elicit more than a shrug — after all, it’s only one-hundredth of a dollar, right? Here are three lesser-known facts about this unit of currency, which the U.S. Treasury calls the “penny.”
It was once a universal term
The word penny has many European variations, from the British pence, to the Swedish penning, to the German pfennig. But that’s not the most intriguing aspect of its etymology. Far more interesting is the fact that the term was originally used to cover any denomination of currency — much like the word money itself.
The reason Americans call the one-cent piece a penny today is largely accidental. When the first penny was minted back in 1793, citizens used the word (which was then defined far more broadly) purely out of habit. As other denominations were introduced, the one-cent coin retained the distinction.
Benjamin Franklin invented the penny
The notorious Founding Father was responsible for designing the first known American Penny. This archetype, known as the “Fugio cent,” was characterized by the intriguing motto “Mind Your Business” on one side, with the strangely contradictory “We Are One” emblazoned on the other. A 13-link chain (one for each of the original colonies) encircled the latter inscription.
An interesting footnote: The familiar idiom “a penny saved is a penny earned” has also been attributed to Franklin, whose grave in Philadelphia is now often littered with one-cent pieces as a result.
The “copper” conundrum
The first pennies were made of 100 percent copper, and much larger in diameter — roughly the size of today’s 50-cent pieces. Due to rising copper prices, the metal now makes up only about 2.5 percent of the coin (they’re now made mostly of zinc). During World War II, when the need for weapons drove the price of copper sky-high, pennies were briefly made of zinc-coated steel; however, the coin’s confusing resemblance to dimes (and high deterioration rate) led to their rapid discontinuation.