If you have any pennies in your dryer, car console, under couch cushions or overflowing in a jar above your fridge, it's finally time to cash in those extra cents and subsequently forget that we ever had those little copper coins.
The penny was worthless for a slew of reasons, and though some people will miss it, the dismissal is long overdue. Nostalgia is an incredibly strong emotion. Even I remember one-cent candies being available in little plastic jars at Becker's on the end of the street.
Thinking about it now, of course, even as someone who is incredibly not germaphobic, the only images those memories really bring up are the frightening sugar candies that only cost a penny. A bunch of other kids probably got their filthy hands in the jars too, soiling all the other candies with their fingers. That isn't exactly the warmest memory one can have of a piece of legal tender.
The penny is officially no longer minted by our money presses.
Pennies have long been dust collectors in Canadians' pockets. I'm sure my grandparents will miss them. Their generation is either just more nostalgic or they have more to be nostalgic about. Maybe if 12 cents made me a rich eight-year-old, I would have a greater appreciation for the penny too.
It's not the only thing my grandparents are nostalgic for. Over the holidays, my siblings were together listening to grandfather's stories about where the boys would take the girls for a little fun time back in the day. There was the leaf hut, the wood pile and the coal bin. It sounds like any place that was out of view of the adults was a great place in their minds.
We learned my grandpa never took my grandma to the leaf hut or the coal bin. I don't know why the wood pile was so special and the leaf hut and coal bin so were unsuitable for her.
Maybe it's just more common for people to look back on older memories more fondly, so the further my grandparents get from their childhoods, the better their childhoods seem.
With that logic, it will take about 50 years before I will start really missing the pennies in my pocket.
For someone who uses physical money for maybe two per cent of their purchases, those feelings may never bubble to the surface. I may as well start getting teary-eyed for the credit card that expired a year ago, cut in half and thrown in the trash.
I have a passionate dislike for change. I don't like being handed a toonie, a loonie, a quarter, a few dimes, a nickel and three pennies. Those coins are just going to go somewhere and be forgotten about, so for me it feels like lost money, coins I'll never see again.
With all the non-cash options to pay for things - credit cards, debit cards, PayPal, gift cards that are pre-paid with credit, debit or PayPal - I'd rather abandon money and just pay for things via trade than receive change.
The penny is not going to be missed in my heart. That's one place I refuse to store my unused coins.
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