My 2 cents worth

... and I always get excited when I find a wheat penny, so I flipped it over and noticed it was from 1939! That's so old for a penny in our truck! Easily 40 years older than the rest of them ... so the shiny penny made me wonder, how old is this one? The back looks like a new design ... and, sure enough, it was from 2010! 

Ok. They're pennies! We drop them, donate them, toss them into fountains, and walk past them on the sidewalk. Why should I be noticing these two? 

I started to admire the old wheat penny, thinking of the beautiful illustrations my dad used to do, and of how romantically wonderful it is that our coins would pay homage to the midwestern agricultural roots of our nation. Sure, it's money, but it's about the land. 

The more I started to think about the old penny, I started to really wonder about this new one out on the market ... there's still an emphasis on 'One Cent', but the thing dominating the space is this shield which honestly looks like a bad police badge. So what's that saying? 

The hilarious movie, "Team America, World Police" immediately comes to mind. I know this isn't a political blog, and still, one has to consider motivation when it comes to music, art & design. That's where the message comes in to play. The order of hierarchy. The most important things should be emphasized, and the rest is in harmony. 

So have our coins, these little pennies, taken the voice of bold & shining shield? Defender of all pennies?

  

On our smallest unit of financial energy, are we really saying that we should feel safe behind this copper shield, no larger than my thumbnail? Now that's funny. 

I would hope that we not only don't feel safe behind a penny, or any amount of pennies, and rather ask what are we doing with these pennies, what are we saying? As a consumer, with my pennies, what will I trade them for? Or, better yet, what of myself will I trade, in exchange for these new, shiny, "safe" pennies?