Pennies have a bad wrap nowadays.  You know, being the piddlest of monies and all.  Chances are you don’t even carry them any more.  I flat out dislike them myself.  Parking meters and most coin operated machines don’t take them, so what’s the point?  They may be light, but bang for buck wise they don’t carry their own weight like a quarter or toonie.  Just think of the epicness of the $10 Hong Kong Dollar.

Pretty much only mom’s and those crazy coupon freaks lovers still use them.  And those guys, are a dime a dozen. Zing!

The History of Pennies

Remember that old saying, penny for your thoughts and a quarter for the call? Well unfortunately most people’s time cost $5, considering the average person makes $50K a year. And the call? Well that’ll cost you at least $0.50 if you manage to find a pay phone. Otherwise, it’ll be around $80-$200 a month based on which carrier you feel like being abused by if you’re a Canadian.

So wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to just rid of pennies all together? Especially since it cost over $100 million to keep this little guy in circulation each year. Think of all the things we could do with the money we currently spend on pennies.

Applying Purpose to the Madness

I’m sure if someone said you could donate all your pennies to a special charity or benefit, you would. No questions asked. Please take them.

However, donating them by idea is super simple, until you figure in the cost of actually turning pennies into usable cash. I found a few organizations that are related to penny donations, but they only accept credit cards and Pay Pal. Which is not pennies.

However…

This little geek chick is onto something.  Hannah Newbury of @penniesaddup is turning spare change into food for those in need. Check out her idea here. A true inspiration to geeks of all ages.

But what about on a mass nation-wide scale? Pennies have been in circulation since 1858, plus all our piggy banks and pockets after buying things like coffee and lunch.

So what else could we do with pennies?

• Create a point of sale charitable box based on giving up your pennies
• Work with the national mail service to allow cheap penny mail donations
• Get the government involved, which may lead to the exclusion of pennies. Yay!
• Create a special charity card that can be associated with your bank account. Round up all transactions so charities of your choice get the pennies instead (in essence abolishing  the need for physical pennies)

Geeks Unite!

Part of why I keep ChickTech kicking is because smart people read it, and as smart people you have amazing ideas. So I ask of you my kind, genius and uber geeky reader friends, what could we the people do to make better use of pennies? If Hannah can start the wave of change, then as a united geek community, we should be able to carry the idea and just maybe, do the impossible.

For Fun – Creative Uses for Pennies

We could always cover our homes and streets in unwanted pennies.

https://www.floorstoyourhome.com/blog/2010/01/10-most-awesome-floors-ever-created/

We could pimp out our cars with pennies!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_owen

We could paint them and use them as game tokens. 3 Rosie Jetsons to 1 R2D2.

 http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqli9780w41qcg65do1_500.jpg

Or, we could just forget about it and do nothing. And waste more money each year. Forget about all the pennies we pass on the street because we don’t think one penny will make a difference. I bet a little child in Africa would say otherwise.

Just saying.