The Days Of The Canadian Penny Are Numbered

The Days Of The Canadian Penny Are Numbered

One of Canada’s biggest staples other than maple syrup is their love for the legendary Canadian penny.

Sadly, starting with this Monday, the Royal Canadian Mint will stop manufacturing and distributing pennies to financial institutions and start the process of recovering and recycling close to 82 million kilograms of the currency.

The main reason for the death of the popular penny is that manufacturing costs have exceeded the actual worth of a penny, with each penny costing 1.6 cents to manufacture.

While the pennies will still remain legal tender individual business owners will decide if they accept them as a payment method.

With nearly 700 million pennies to recover, the whole process of taking the penny out of circulation could take years.

While it doesn't have any real value or use as currency, some artists rely heavily on the penny, especially in jewelry making circles.They feel that through their art, they are keeping an important part of Canadian culture alive.

These artists aren't the only people concerned with the preservation of the Canadian penny’s memory. The Bank of Canada’s Currency Museum is also considering the Canadian penny’s memory and has made a mural of about 16,000 pennies to celebrate the occasion.

Posted by Kade Quinn on Tuesday February 05 2013, 2:21 AM EST. Ref: National Post. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Entertainment, Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0