The last penny was minted in Philadelphia today

[Scott Tschirhart]

The passing of an era.

[AJMD429]

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If you have a few pennies and some sandpaper or a concrete block or rock to 'sand' them with, you can at least use them to make a battery in an emergency.

It won't have much power, but will light an LED for a couple days.

Just sand one side of each to get the copper off, put some damp felt or newspaper or whatever in between them, and it really does work. I forget the different electrode potentials of the two (Zn, Cu) but I think you get about one volt per 'cell'. I suppose if you were patient enough to put a couple thousand in parallel in series-of-six, you could make quite the battery...

[JimT]

our government continues to devalue our money ... it wasn't all that long ago (70 years maybe) that you could actually buy something with a penny .,.... now it costs more to make them than they are worth ....

[GunnyMack]

I get a kick out of all these people saying they can't use pennies because they are no longer being minted - they are still legal tender. Until the very last penny is remelted they are currency.