Penny For Your Thoughts

The last penny was cast at the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg on Friday, May 4, 2012.

Rest in peace, good and faithful copper pal. It will be a boring blare of steel, nickel and bronze without your homely tarnish.

Originally, the final million pennies were slated to be made available to Canadians as collector items. However, after pressing the lever to cast the final penny, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was struck by a better idea, perhaps by the sight of the final shiny disc tumbling into an empty (begging?) bowl.

As Flaherty announced later:

“We have decided to mint another 33 million or so of them. The exact number is still to be determined. But it will correspond precisely to the holders of the bottom 1% of the wealth in our great country. I would like to take credit for the idea, but I have to admit it was my son, an Occupy follower, who suggested it. After a brief family squabble, I saw the sense in it. It is only fitting. After all, those 99% of citizens have kept good and mostly silent faith with the penny left to them by the 1% who took the balance of each loonie. Plans are still being worked out, but one idea I like is to mail one of the commemorative coins to each of the identified 99%, along with a password that will enable them to comment on a national public blog, expressing their feelings about the Canadian economy and their place in it.

www.pennyforyourthoughts.ca will be the name of the site. Personal slur or profanity will not be allowed; otherwise, the site will not be censored.

A measure of free expression is the least we can offer on this historic occasion to the very many who are satisfied with so very little.