John Delach

Bud Hearn

December 2025

A message from John Delach

Dear Reader,

I was asleep at the switch when it became time to record the end of the penny. Fortunately, my favorite author, Bud Hearn, was not asleep and, with his permission, I have re-printed his essay, “A Requiem for the Penny.”

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To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.   Ecclesiastes 3:1

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     The penny has died, but I don’t see any tears. It had a good run—232 years, longer than most things, including whole empires. Its time has come and now gone, and we’re left scratching our collective heads trying to figure out how we’ll round off and reconcile our books and accounts ‘to the nearest penny.’

     It didn’t get much of an obituary. Cold, factual, void of emotion and pretty ho-hum. It was found tucked in on page 4 of the WSJ like some obligatory goodbye written by a journalist without sentiment for the penny’s accomplishments and legacy.

     The obituary also didn’t include the cause of death, only that it costs more to mint than it’s worth…3.7 cents. Of course, some perverted think-tank accountant minds in DC might be thinking this math could apply to a lot of other things, including people. A lot of things cost more than they’re worth. Like health insurance. Will George Washington be the next to be axed?

     But we can discern from the obituary the true cause of the penny’s demise, a heinous malady, Inflation.

     So here we are, bereft of the lowly penny. It had no intercessor to assist it in justifying its existence. It slowly became a nuisance, going the way of piggy banks and lying lifelessly in parking lots and street gutters, stepped on, ignored, demeaning the visage of Lincoln. A sad conclusion to a useful life.

     Most obituaries include the good works and highlights in the life of the deceased. And the penny has many. It’s the penny sales tax—SPLOST—that repairs our roads, furnishes drinking water and builds parks for playgrounds. The power of one penny.  

     It has left us many useful aphorisms, helpful one-liners that offer definition in brevity to many of life’s issues. Where would we be without penny loafers, a throw-back to years gone by. What about penny wise, or the penny-ante game of chance. Then there’s the penny pincher, a euphemistic description of the misers among us.

     And where would we be without the ‘penny for your thoughts?’ The next generation won’t have a clue of what these cliches mean, much less any remembrance of the penny itself. No, the penny leaves a rich legacy worthy of commendation.

     Fortunately, the penny will take on a much greater intrinsic keepsake value as it becomes scarce and hard to find. Like expensive art, Van Gogh, Matisse and the others, sometimes things have more value after death. Such may be the penny’s fate.

     Bye-bye penny is really not an appropriate send off to this tiny copper coin. But life tarries not in the past for long, something will replace the penny.

     Maybe it’ll be the advent of a gold-plated bitcoin inscribed and stamped with an oversized “T” and sold to greedy speculators. After all, crypto currency offers its own promises of wealth.  Remember, though, it will be highly contagious with the disease of inflation that’s imbedded in the moment of its minting. Inflation cuts both ways, you know. There are winners and losers.

     But for now, let’s not lament the passing of the penny but celebrate its beneficent years among us. After all, nothing lasts forever. And as a token of respect for the penny, let’s pick up Mr. Lincoln out of the gutter when we see him.  

Bud Hearn

December 15, 2025