Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1898 — GREAT DEMAND FOR PENNIES. [ARTICLE]

GREAT DEMAND FOR PENNIES.

Philadelphia Mint Tarns Out 4,000* 030 a Month. The most useful and hard-working member of the coin family consists of 95 per cent, of copper and 5 per cent, tin and zinc, and bears on its face the legend “one cent” It doesn’t require a person of advanced age or long memory to recall the time when the'humble coin was practically unknown west of the Mississippi. Now its use is wellnigh universal, and the demand for it is increasing: so rapidly that the Philadelphia mint is compelled to turn out 1-cent pieces at the rale of nearly 4,000,000 per mouth to keep up the supply. Two recent devices have been largely responsible for the increased use of our only copper coin. One is the penny-4n-the-slot machine, which has spread over the land like the locusts of Egypt within the past two or three years. A single automatic machine company takes In 500,000 pennies a day. As there isn’t a cross-roads village in the country that hasn’t a <?hewing-gum, kinetoscope, music or weighing machine operated in this way, the number of coins required to keep them- all going is enormous. The other invention responsible for the rise of the cent is the “bargain counter,” The craze'for 49-epnt and 90-cent bargains makes work for a lot of pennies. A sulntreasury official says: “All through the summer the pennies accumulate on our hands, but when cold weather comes and the children get back to school and retail trade revives there is a great demand for them. The holidays demand a lot of pennies, and with the approach of Christmas our cept pile pelts away amazingly: There is no'better indication of lively trade conditions than the cent. During periods of dullness they always accumulate pp our hands, and when trade revives they begin to circulate rapidly again.” The figures of distribution kept by the mjnt are interesting as showing the localities where pennies are most }n use. bast year the demand was greatest from Pensylvahia, which took over 11,000,000 of them. New York Was the second largest customer, adding 9,000,000 to her supply.—Philadelphia Press.