Canadian penny

The pennies produced each year by the Royal Canadian Mint, when laid end-to-end, would go from St. John’s, N.L., to Victoria and back.
Producing those pennies — necessary after people tuck them away in the piggy bank — is estimated to cost $130 million a year.
Pennies cost retail businesses about $60 million a year to record, store and transport, plus time spent by cashiers per transaction.
The penny buys 1/20th what it bought in 1908.
Until 1996, pennies were anywhere from 95 to 98 per cent copper. They are now 94 per cent steel, 1.5 per cent nickel, and 4.5 per cent copper-plated zinc.
From 1876 to 1920, Canadian pennies were 25.4 mm in diameter and weighed 5.67 g; current pennies weigh 2.35 g and are 19.05 mm round.
Thirty-seven per cent of Canadians say they regularly use pennies to pay for goods.
If all the pennies minted since 1908 were stacked on top of each other, they would go 49,000 kilometres into space.

May 2010