Jan 08 2009
Ten fun facts about… pennies
Image from lifeinfozone.com.
Coin designs are Crown Copyright.
Ah, the 1p coin - the weapon of choice for so many bored schoolchildren, football hooligans and drunks attacking homeless people. You may think that the humble penny is absolutely useless in modern society as nothing costs just one pence… and you’d probably be right. But wait right there! These impromptu projectiles are more interesting than you think.
- As of 2005, there were over ten million 1 pence coins in circulation.
- Since they were first minted, over six billion 1p coins have been lost, most of them down the back of the sofa, public toilets and bins.
- It costs more than one pence (approx. 1.5p) to produce a penny, so the Government lose money on every coin they produce. Probably.
- Royal Mint guidelines say that “no person shall, except under the authority of a licence granted by the Treasury, melt down or break up any metal coin which is currently in circulation in the United Kingdom”. So don’t go melting them down and selling them on for their street value.
- 1p Coins before 1982 have the word ‘new’ on them. Well, don’t tell me you didn’t wittily point this out to your mates at school. I suppose the Bank of England thought we wouldn’t still have them in circulation today. Way to think ahead!
- You can buy them for up to 50 quid on eBay. Really.
- The penny is only legal tender for amounts up to 20p. I presume it’s to stop old grannies paying for their groceries with their copper collection. Whilst you can pay as much as you like with the higher denomination pound notes, shops can refuse to accept more than twenty pennies.
- Modern pennies are made from copper-plated steel, but coins minted before 1992 were actually made from copper, tin and zinc (bronze).
- Isle of Man, Channel Island or Crown Dependency pennies are not legal tender in mainland Britain. The next time you are given one in the corner shop, you have the right to refuse it although nobody really cares since pennies are mostly cannon fodder anyway.
- If you can eat a penny, then it is a chocolate coin. Otherwise, you may have to consult your doctor immediately.
I’d watch out for the last one if I were you. Oh yeah, and make sure you don’t accidentally eat them with the wrapper still on or they’ll just taste nasty. For more information on coins in general see the Royal Mint website, and for more information on chocolate coins, see here.
Pennies for you, pennies for me–I find myself wondering just how many countries have coins that are more of an investment than they claim to be worth. Could be interesting to look into.
Pennies (British and North American) are also my preferred currency for firing from a slingshot - usually in groups of four to get that shotgun effect.
But I don’t drink as much as I used to, so I might not be remembering that correctly.