The Happy Penny
On Saturday, I received three pennies in change at a store. Looking at the pennies in my hand, one jumped out for its unique color. I was happy to see it — the happy penny.
Sometimes I have to look at the date on a penny to see if it is one of those increasingly rare to receive in change pre-1982 pennies with a different metal composition than the newer pennies. But, sometimes a special hue shines through the surface giving away the relatively rare coin’s presence.
In 1965, silver was replaced with cheaper metal in new dime and quarter coins. A few years later, in 1971, President Richard Nixon closed the gold window, preventing foreign governments from exchanging their United States dollars for gold. Several decades earlier, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had demanded Americans turn in to the government their gold coins. Roosevelt then devalued the dollar in terms of gold. US gold coins production for public use also ended.
These actions, spanning roughly fifty years from the 1930s to the 1980s, were all taken to facilitate progressively inflating away the value of the dollar. Over this time, metals deemed
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
