by Rob Purifoy

Created on: January 15, 2010

Many of us would likely rather not have a bunch of seemingly useless dirty small coins jingling in our pockets or sitting in a jar. The penny has become a mainstay in society for making change because of taxable items and because there are rarely even amounts of pricing around the country. There are ways government could decrease spending making the little wanted coin by asking state and local governments to round sales tax by .05 cents. But rest assured that instead of .08 sales tax, they will round up-for example.

Because of the rise in the price in copper, in 1982 the government started adding zinc and only 2.5% copper to pennies to make it economically worthwhile to even make a penny for less than it's value. The penny is likely the most worthless coin when the value of supply and demand is calculated. Today there are two major originating mintage's of the penny, Denver "D" and Philadelphia "P", the initials of which can be found under the date of the coin. In 2008 it's reported that between these two mints that over 5 Billion pennies were minted in the US.

When it comes to metal value, pennies today are not worth what they could be had they remained all copper. And the penny in society is easily discarded as not needed as judged by the amount found on the ground or left in the gimme tray at the local gas station. However, there are valuable and rare pennies of the past that may be worth more than a few Benjamin's. Take for instance the early 1900's wheat pennies or the 1943 war-time steel pennies.  Precious metals were needed for WW II so the government began making pennies with zinc coated steel. Also during this time there were a select few real copper pennies minted, likely by accident, that are wildly valuable today.

The little penny has a history and for that it can be revered, but today it's just a relic and a way to make change of little regard for most. Even so, because of this little regard, you might just take a look at that penny before you throw it away. If the date is before 1982 it's real copper, if it predates that you might look a little more closely and flip it around to the back as it could be a rare coin worth more than you think.

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