The annual Penny Harvest is now underway with an estimated 500,000 students participating in the 19th year of its operation.
Penny Harvest Field at Rockefeller Center in 2007 (Photos courtesy of Common Cents©)
Schools across the nation have signed on to take part in the activity by allowing their students to take an active roll in the process. Through the use of adult coaches, peer leaders, assemblies, etc., kids are asked to volunteer their time to help raise money for their community, one penny at a time.
Those who do participate then go home and ask their family, friends, and neighbors for loose change (as well as donate some themselves) and begin to collect it to be eventually turned back in to their school. Once the coins are compiled, the funds are set aside while those same students take an active part in deciding what do to with the money. Read the rest of this entry »
Coinworks has just sold the Proof 1923 Halfpenny for a world record price of $500,000. The only proof example of Australia’s rarest halfpenny available to collectors, the iconic copper was quickly snapped up by a prominent Sydney family.
The family’s story is not merely one of Australian history, but how a passion for collecting can comfortably co-exist with informed investment.
One member of the family spearheads the interest in rare coins, that interest commencing at the age of seven when the grandmother died, leaving a small tin of sovereigns. The grandmother’s gift seeded a collecting spirit that endures to this day; the sovereigns still part of the family’s holding.
The family members share a passion for history, their forebears having arrived as free settlers in the penal colony of New South Wales in 1855. Driven by that passion and their quest for rarity, the family has acquired some of Australia’s greatest coins, guided in their choices by Coinworks. Read the rest of this entry »
Colorado students in 31 elementary, middle and high schools collected nearly 3.8 million in pennies, or $37,826.02, for local charities during the 18th annual Penny Harvest.
The Penny Harvest is a national program that comes to fruition each fall when children scour their neighborhood in search of pennies.
Collected pennies are tallied toward year’s end with youthful philanthropy in full stride as students select charities of their choice to help with cash grants and services. Read the rest of this entry »
Open your penny jars and start digging through your couch, the 18th annual Penny Harvest is underway and kids need your change. Nearly 500,000 students from across the country have begun scouring for loose pennies and going door-to-door asking for spare cents. But the pennies are not for them, they’re for charity. And best of all, Penny Harvest teaches children about their value in working together, sharing and contributing to society.
From now until Thanksgiving, students between the ages of four and fourteen will call themselves Penny Harvesters as they collect millions of pennies from family, friends and neighbors. All collections are then one hundred percent donated in the form of grants to non-profit organizations student leaders select. From helping the elderly to protecting the environment to over a thousand other worthy charities, the students make the call to where the money goes.
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A new poll by Harris Interactive® reflects American’s favor for the Lincoln penny, its preference for the $1 bill and the uphill battle the U.S. Mint is fighting to get new Presidential $1 coins into daily circulation.
Presidential $1 dollar coins not making it into circulation
For the latter two topics, there has been no shortage of articles within numismatic publications relaying the overwhelming realities of the near impossible task of a dollar coin competing head on with the lighter, and more convenient to use dollar bill. And while the word "many" has been used to describe those who have not yet seen the Presidential $1 coins used in circulation since their 2007 introduction, an overwhelming 75% of Harris Poll respondents say they have not seen a single dollar coin in circulation.
Given the U.S. Mint produced nearly 941 million presidential $1 coins in 2007 alone, or enough for every U.S. man, woman and child to each have three, the 75% figure highlights that while the coins may be attractive to collectors, so far they have not proven practical for use. In that regard, they lose to the paper dollar just like previous $1 coins.
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A new bill was introduced yesterday that proposes the elimination of the Canadian penny. Abolishing a country’s smallest denominated coin is not new. It has certainly happened in the past, and several countries are publicly debating the issue or implementing a recall of their smallest coin right now.
As examples, in recent months and weeks there has been talk of Russia removing their one-kopek, Denmark saying goodbye to their 25-øre and Malaysia abandoning their one-sen.
Unlike the dilemma other countries face, like the U.S., the cost to manufacture the Canadian penny is actually less than its value. That’s one less obstacle to overcome for those who would like to keep it.
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Is the demise of the Lincoln penny approaching? Public sentiments appears slightly shifted toward its continual survival and the penny is guaranteed to be around for the next several years. The newly designed pennies for 2009 celebrating the bicentennial birth of Lincoln will see to that by itself.
But is sentiment for the penny changing and moving toward its elimination?
While the House is debating changes to the composition of coinage in order to make coins like the penny and nickel once again profitable to mint, more focus is placed on whether the penny should be produced at all. Even the latest House hearing had congressman pondering the pennies’ continuation.
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United States Mint Director Ed Moy will testify before the House Financial Services Subcommittee tomorrow, March 11. A CoinNews article Friday discussed House bill H.R. 5512. It is that bill for which Mr. Moy will testify.
H.R. 5512, named the ‘Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2008‘, seeks to change the composition of metals in coins in order to maintain or bring back their profitability - the penny and nickel, for example, cost more to produce than what they are worth. The penny costs approximately 1.7 cents to make and the nickel about 10 cents.
In regards to the hearing, U.S. Representative Luis V. Gutierres commented:
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Coin collectors are experienced in placing and arranging coins within albums, folders, holders and the like. Many collectors also enjoy showing their collection to family, friends and other collectors. However, the thought of taking collected coins, artistically arranging them into a portrait and sharing the results with the public is something, likely, most numismatists would never contemplate.
One father and son team did just that. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes there is more to a coin than its intrinsic or collectible value. This is one of those times …
Dale Earnhardt Sr. had won many races, but never the Daytona 500. That is, until Feb. 15, 1998 and the day after he first met six year old Wessa Miller.
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