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From: myers@uwmacc.UUCP (Latitudinarian Lobster)
Newsgroups: net.bizarre
Subject: Re: where do all the pennies go?
Message-ID: <1443@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 31-Aug-85 13:11:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.1443
Posted: Sat Aug 31 13:11:50 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 2-Sep-85 04:26:11 EDT
References: <3467@garfield.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Ken Kopp's Fresh Seafood Tank
Lines: 16

> 
> 	Have you ever wondered where all of the pennies go to?  There
> must have been billions of pennies produced in the last hundred years or
> so.  I guess that a few get melted down, and some get run over by trains,
> but how many pennies have you seen from 1952 lately?

You don't see any pennies from before 1959 because collectors have scarfed
them up.  Pre-1959 pennies did not have the Lincoln Memorial on the back,
but had two shafts of wheat surrounding some other stuff.  These are known,
bizarrely enough, as ``wheat pennies.''

You don't see dimes or quarters from before 1965 because they're 90% silver.

Still, the questions remains...it's been a long time since 1959...where
do those pennies go?  My theory is that they are collected by pack rats
and various species of birds which like shiny objects.