PENNIES FROM HEAVEN

Letter to the Editor, The Ottawa Citzen, Tuesday April 15th by Brian Eagle

There has been much debate and discussion in recent weeks regarding the proposed elimination of the penny from our currency. The venerable Canadian 1¢ coin is a century old this year. If New Democrat MP Pat Martin has his way, this will be the last year for the much maligned penny.
A number of good reasons have been put forth to explain the lack of respect given to the penny. Andrew Duffy quoted a recent study indicating that many pennies were removed from circulation because they are hoarded, lost or thrown away. Kelly Eagan related a conversation in his article with a woman who said that, when the pennies pile up at home, she just throws them away. The Royal Canadian Mint admits that it costs more to produce the penny than its face value. I have heard estimates varying from 2.5¢ to 4¢ per coin. The mint produces, on the average, 800 million pennies each year in a failing effort to keep the coin in circulation.

I offer a proposal to renew the power of the penny and increase circulation at the same time, at no cost to the mint. I decided to see how many pennies we’ve actually accumulated in miscellaneous drawers and containers all over the house. I was very surprised to fill one and a half coffee cans.  The cans now contain $18.46 in worthless, un-circulated 1¢ coins. I suspect that almost every household in my neighbourhood could match my coffee can collection. If all of these pennies were collected and donated to a charitable cause, we could raise hundreds of dollars and put the lowly penny back into circulation. Now imagine that this idea was expanded city wide, the whole province and all across the country. The amount raised for charity would be staggering. The pennies now in circulation could be collected all over again. The concept could become a renewable charitable fund.

Northern Art Glass put this initiative into motion on April 16th. A collection pail has been set up in the studio for penny donations. When it is full we will deliver it to the Women's Shelter. The next full pail will go to the Men's Shelter. Our staff, our customers and students have been extremely supportive. We ask you to round up all of those miscellaneous pennies from jars and drawers around your house and put them to work for a good cause. Thank you.