The Demise of the Penny is Nothing to Celebrate

The end of the penny is another step down the blood-stained road toward a compulsory Central Bank Digital Currency.

The U.S. mint announced last week that they will no longer be creating any new pennies, ending the run of the penny following 232 years of production in what may be a grim sign of what is to come for our monetary system.

The final penny was created at the Philadelphia Mint on Thursday, Nov. 13. The U.S. government is ceasing production because with reportedly 300 billion pennies in circulation, there are far more than are needed to conduct day-to-day transactions. Each penny also costs a stunning $3.69 to make, making the penny economically nonviable to remain in production.

The cost of making a penny has not risen because of a copper shortage or some other unforeseen circumstance. The cost has risen because the purchasing power of the dollar has waned substantially. The dollar, as a matter of fact, has lost over 95 percent of its value since the beginning of the 20th Century when the U.S. opened a Central Bank at the behest of its financial class, who met in secret on Jekyll Island off the coast of Georgia to hatch their diabolical scheme.

The Federal Reserve, as it was called despite not being federal and the nonexistence of any reserve, was proposed as a means to stabilize the economy. A little over a decade after its inception in 1913, the Great Depression occurred. Of course, the Fed never took the blame for that and continued to amass power both during and after the calamity. FDR cracked down on gold at their behest, and the gold standard was finally put out of its misery in 1971 (in one of my few major policy disagreements with Richard Nixon).

Since then, the Fed has the unlimited, unaccountable ability to print infinite sums of money and has made the penny nonviable as a result. Earlier in our nation’s history, a penny was not only worth its value but also could be used to purchase tangible goods and services. In 1932, Americans could travel on the railway system for just a penny a mile, making mobility convenient and accessible to the American citizen. Women’s suffragettes in the 1890’s raised money for their campaigns with one-penny-per-day pledges from grassroots supporters, as the dollar’s strong value helped the people move forward societal progress.

In 1946, half a penny made such a difference that it held up a labor agreement as unionized workers felt the sum was substantial enough to play hardball during pay raise negotiations. By the 1950s, a penny could still be used to purchase a newspaper or a candy bar, but the Fed was working quickly diligently to change that. By the 1980s, the penny was moving toward obsolescence with Keynesian economics and its doctrine of perpetual inflation winning the day.

Now we find ourselves in a post-Keynesian era that is dictated largely by unrestrained technological innovation that is quickly uprooting our customs and traditions. Tech companies like Apple can seamlessly put a user’s wallet, ID and ability to pay into their iPhone device with the swipe of a screen, and eventually will be able to do so with a microchip. The rise of cryptocurrency only hastens the transition to digital money. What is stopping our elites from phasing out paper money and other coins as they have the penny?

The end of the penny is another step down the blood-stained road toward a compulsory Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) that tracks all of our activity in the marketplace and serves as a de facto Mark of the Beast from the book of Revelation. To his great credit, President Trump has vowed to never implement a CBDC, but perhaps a successor will not be so wise. Digital dystopia is right around the corner, and the removal of the penny should be a sobering reminder of just how close we may be to fulfilling Orwell’s darkest prophecies.