It costs 2 cents for the United States Mint to manufacture a Lincoln cent. In 2021, the government struck 7.1 billion of them. Two-thirds never circulate. They clutter up banks. Yet we keep minting them.
Whenever the nation’s “greatness” is bandied about, by those who imagine greatness is a quality that can be self-assigned, a little voice says, “Yeah, we can’t even get rid of the penny.”
Australia managed. In 1990. Canada, too — a decade ago. Also Brazil, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Israel — quite a list. Are they “greater” than we are? Certainly pennywise.
Enough prelude. It was a shameful weekend for the country, even though the federal government didn’t shut down, as it seemed about to. A good thing.
But avoiding disaster should never be confused with triumph — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called the stopgap bill “a victory for the American people.” No, a victory for the American people would be a smoothly functioning government that can’t be hijacked by any cadre of extremists who feel so inclined.
This is a good moment to step back and understand what is going on, big picture. The United States is a majoritarian democracy. In theory. Meaning the will of the people is expressed through elections, naming representatives who make laws and decide policies.
People who find themselves in the minority, like the MAGA extremists who almost shut down the government, are not happy with this, because this representative world doesn’t revolve around their precious selves.
So they try to achieve their ends — slashing Social Security and Medicaid, blocking immigration, cutting aid to Ukraine — by cheating. Procedural tricks. Refusing to fund the government. Holding their breath and throwing tantrums.
Back to the penny. When Barack Obama came into office, he said he was interested in learning what pressure groups keep us from eliminating the penny. No big secret. There’s congressional pressure from a company that makes zinc blanks — despite appearances, a cent is 98% zinc.
Plus CoinStar, which makes the machines that count coins in supermarkets. You’d think that the zinc blank and coin counting machine industries would not have the lobbying might to dictate national policy in a vibrant democracy. But you’d be wrong. The shock isn’t how corrupt our leaders are, but how little they sell us out for.
Obama was able to pass a system of national health insurance. Getting rid of the penny was beyond his abilities.
We in Illinois are supposed to be especially attached to the Lincoln penny, being the land of Lincoln. But we are also supposed to be even more attached to the idea of liberty and not being in the thrall of despots. When the Lincoln penny was introduced, to mark the centennial of his birth in 1909, a tradition of 122 years was broken.
Ever since the first U.S. coin had been struck in 1787 — a penny, of course — no president was depicted on a coin, because that reeked of kings aggrandizing themselves, and we were supposed to be a free people.
Thus, coins carried images of Liberty, in the form of a lady — a reminder that veneration is not respect. A nation of men carrying coins honoring women nevertheless denied them the right to vote. Women could embody freedom, they just couldn’t enjoy it.
Take a closer look at that first penny. It’s called the “Fugio cent” because one side displays a sundial and the Latin word “fugio,” or “I fly,” which is what time does. The next 45 days will certainly speed by until we go through this all again.
Flip the coin over, and there are 13 rings, interlocked together, for the 13 joined colonies. “United States” it reads, “WE ARE ONE.” Yes, that was never true. The abolitionists of Massachusetts were never one with the slave drivers of South Carolina.
But it’s really, really not true now. A time when most of us go weeks and never touch currency, never mind coins. I’m afraid that decades from now, when you walk in a store, grab products and unseen cameras scan your retinas and deduct your account, mountains of pennies will still be struck, transferred to banks to sit until they’re returned, melted down and struck again.
Just as every 45 days the government will come within an hour of shutting down, until it finally does, for good, and the anarchy that so many seem to crave finally descends upon us all.
