Penny for your thoughts

I bet you thought there isn’t much you can do with pennies now that the Canadian mint has stopped making them, right?

Wrong!

Even though it’s been more than a year since production of the Canadian penny came to an end, most retailers still accept them as a form of payment and a recent study suggests the average Canadian has about $10 worth of pennies saved up. That’s a whole lot of thoughts…

I have a HUGE jar of pennies in my room. So I started researching WHAT I can do with them — and I actually found some cool ideas.

1. Roll them and cash them in at the bank — save the money, or buy something that’s been on my “list” for a while. I’m eyeing a new comic book, right now.
2. Donate them. The Tim Horton’s Children Foundation, Habitat for Humanity and many, many more charities would be happy to take your penny jars off your hands.
3. Make a wish — or a few. Fountains, ponds and wishing wells everywhere still take penny donations. Just make sure there aren’t any fish in the water. The copper in pennies can kill them.
4. Use them as a screwdriver in a pinch. I might even throw a couple in Grandpa’s toolbox.
5. Find pennies with your birthdate (or other special dates) and kick start your coin collection. Hey, someday that collection could be worth something.
6. Add a penny to your Mom’s tulip cuttings to stop the flowers from drooping.  I hear an old penny works best because of the copper content.
7. Lost your checkers pieces? Use pennies — heads or tails?

What other ideas can you come up with? Come on…a penny for YOUR thoughts… <grin>

Gotta jet!

— Chase Superman Duffy