Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1920 — PENNIES MORE IN USE THAN EVER [ARTICLE]

PENNIES MORE IN USE THAN EVER

The public now uses fifty times as many small coins as it used half a decade ago. It would not be a great surprise to discover an increase of 10 per cent or 25 per cent in the use of nickels, dimes and pennies but the fact that their use has been multiplied by half a hundred is hard to account for. The records of the treasury show that for eight years including 19081915, the Danks asked for and received 81,000,000 pennies. This was 4,000,000 a year. It is in comparison with his pigSy figures that the record of the st few months is so surprising. Since last July the public has been demanding and receiving about 60,000,000 pennies a month. It has been using -fifteen times as many of them in a month as it formerly used in a year. - The chief agency that has led to this prodigious use of pennies is the revenue act of a year ago, supplemented by that modern entertainment, the motion picture show. The tax on admissions to these entertainments required the* breaking down of the final nickel in change nearly every time any man, woman or child bought a ticket to a movie. Then there were similar taxes to be paid when one bought soft drinks, cigars or any of those articles which under the law, were luxuries. The newspapers of the nation have doubled in price, requiring more Sennies to handle the business, treet car fares, for a generation so universally five cents each,' have found a level in most cities -between five and ten cents, and this gain breaks up a nickel and necessitates the use of pennies. The resulting penny boom has beerr most remarkable.