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Your support makes all the difference.The news that after years of wrangling Canada is to scrap its 1 penny coin will come as a relief to wearers of low-slung, bum-skirting jeans in the former British Dominion. As anyone who has played basketball or gone to a dubstep rave will tell you, a pocketful of coppers is no good for anyone’s dignity.
It wasn’t fully a sartorial decision though. The Canadian withdrawal was partially one of economics (each one cost 1.6 pennies to make). In the US, where 1 cent costs 2.4 cents, a “no pennies campaign” has grumbled on for years, but there are 180 billion in circulation there, which makes hovering them up quite tough. In Russia “crush the kopeck” hopes to see the country cleansed of its trouser-droopers, too.
Our own 1p coin might also be about to tossed into the smelter. Since its introduction in 1971, its worth has plummeted by around a twelfth and the Federation of Small Business has long said that it would be easier for its 200,000 members if it was pulled from circulation, eradicating the need for time-consuming trips to the bank to “cash the pennies”
Of course, if that did happen here, it would take a while for the mint to get them out of circulation, so we could do as the Canadian are doing on this Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/heraldandswerve/what-to-do-with-your-old-pennies/). Why not follow user Rachel Denny and turn your 1ps into a sculpture of a horse? Or maybe a discrete cufflink for your Valentine? Or if you have the patience and the personnel, why not lay them as a mosaic through the downstairs of your house. Well, maybe not…
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