Grandma gave us pennies!

 

I spent July 4th with my son, his wife, her mom, and my grandkids, who are 2-1/2 and almost 5. In the typical scramble that always occurs when attempting even the most minor activity with very young kids, I found myself transferring the contents of my wallet to my pockets, in the event cash was needed for treats at the fairgrounds. I came up with a couple of dollars' worth of change, but included in that were a half-dozen pennies. Who needs pennies? Who uses them? Who even likes them?

The obvious answer: Kids! Very young children still have no true concept of money or what it's for. To them, it's shiny, sparkly, jingly stuff, or interesting pictures of old men wearing funny clothes. They somehow know that it's important, but haven't quite wrapped their little heads around the concept of why. I remember my son, at a very young age, coming into possession of a handful of coins.  "Monies!" he cried, delightedly throwing the coins into the air, just to hear them jingle as they hit the floor. Well, they do say "experiences" are more important than purchases...I was glad there were an even number of pennies to give away to my grandkids, who were happy to get three cents apiece from ol' Grandma). 

So...pennies. They can be valuable. My father collected coins after some helpful co-worker told him that if he found the "right" coin(s), he could put his kid through college. He found this irresistible, and invested in a supply of coin albums and magazines. His legacy to me included all of those old green albums, which still take up space in my closet. I grew up thinking my dad was an expert numismatist, but when I took the time to go online and check what dealers had to say, I discovered that this carefully curated collection was worth little more than face value. Even into my 20s and 30s, I was still getting mail from Dad containing a wheat penny carefully taped to an index card. Since wheat pennies (which were not minted after 1960) are now a genuinely rare find, I hope that by the time these kids stumble across those musty albums, it will be worth a bit more to them.

Pennies are definitely an old-people kind of thing. Other than rounding out the charge for something to cover sales tax, nobody gets excited about pennies. I remember Halloween as a kid, vastly preferring candy, but still being fascinated at the occasional senior who would drop pennies into our trick-or-treat bags. There were a lot of kids in those days -- before everyone got paranoid about child abduction, we would walk home from school on Halloween, trick-or-treating at every house between the two points. So if one old lady were to give each kid, say, five pennies that afternoon, she really must have had quite an accumulation. Probably saved them all year, just to unload them on us. 

Kids hear a lot about small change and how it can add up. Nearly every kid has a piggy bank, a jar, bottle, box, or tin can somewhere just for this purpose. And at some point, they get the urge to empty the container, count the money, and think about what they can buy with it. Once they come up with a target, they realize how much more convenient it is to have the money in paper form. I think that, actually, may be the moment in a person's life when they transition from childhood to adulthood.

I look forward to the day when my grandkids are old enough to use their money for something they want. And even then, there will still be some shiny stuff for them to enjoy. I currently have a growing collection of flattened pennies...the kind you get out of a machine when you visit a tourist attraction.