Penny Pitching

 By Robert P. Schoene

It came as no surprise to learn that Canada is joining the growing number of penniless nations. No, they are not broke like Greece. Instead, the Canadians will follow some of the most economically-stable countries in the world when it stops minting their one cent piece. The United States is surely not far behind, given the increasing cost of producing the penny, which is more than it’s worth. The preponderance of electronic payment methods, from plastic to smart phones, also is making cash of all denominations superfluous. You can even buy a cup of over-priced coffee with your iPhone these days.

So it’s no wonder that countries like Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain have done away with their lowest-denominated coins without incident or even a fond farewell.

The demise of the penny, if and when it comes in the United States, will be met with some nostalgic memories for the generation that grew up with a jar full of coins in the kitchen that was dipped into for small financial emergencies. Certainly, anyone who used the streets of New York as a playground during the 1950s or earlier, can only think kindly about the impact the penny had on their lives. You could do things with a few cents in those days.

 ‘Two-Cents Plain’

A cold “two-cents plain” was a welcome thirst-quencher on a hot summer’s day in any neighborhood candy store. You put your two pennies on the cold stone counter and watched with anticipation as the bubbling seltzer poured out of the soda fountain into a large Coca-Cola glass. If you had ten pennies, you could spend big and get an Egg-Cream, that delicious fountain-made chocolate soda that had no egg or cream in it, but tasted rich and smooth as though it did.

Pennies were always easy to come by if you knew how to fish for them through the street gratings that cover the air shafts over subway stations. All you needed was a long ball of string tied to a small padlock and a piece of freshly chewed gum stuck to the end of the lock, which would pick up coins from the ledge of the shaft maybe 20-feet below.

For some inexplicable reason there were always coins on those ledges, possibly dropped from the pockets and purses of bus-riders, who were getting on buses at the stop that corresponded with the subway station staircase near the street corner. So an enterprising kid could lie on his belly over the grating and patiently bounce the lock with the sticky gum over the dust-covered surface far below. More often than not you’d come up with something; usually a penny, but sometimes a nickel or a dime.

Next, you’d try to multiply that found money by taking part in another street pastime that everybody got into – pitching pennies. Pitching pennies is a simple enough game, but it does require dexterity with two finders so it must be explained to the young electronic gamers of today, who mostly use their thumbs and would never think of getting dirty.

Any number of people can play. The only requirement is a penny, which is tossed, flipped or rolled about 10-feet along the street to land against a wall, usually the bottom step of a stoop. The individual style of play is optional. The player who lands his or her penny closest to the wall wins the pennies of all the other players.

 So to our generation the penny is much more than the lowest denomination of coin. It was in some small way, part of a rite of passage; the first lesson about the value of money and playing to win on the streets. If you were good at fishing for coins through the subway grating, it meant you didn’t mind getting your shirt and pants dirty for a little coin and that you stuck to a task until you got what you wanted (or your mother screamed out of your apartment window for you to come home for dinner).

The penny also helped us develop skills that would serve us well later in life; like playing dice, instead of pitching pennies. We’ll miss those pennies when they are gone, because they remind us of a less complicated fun time when we took our pleasure from little things.

And, That's That...