And I’ve been thinking about copper lately. And maybe you have too. The announcement that pennies were going to be discontinued has made us think about it. Penny production will end in early 2026, the U.S. Treasury has announced.

I have mixed feelings about it, but it’s mostly nostalgia and sentimentality that makes me think that we should keep pennies. Most of the evidence otherwise says that it doesn’t make sense (cents) to keep them. I mean, it costs more than 3.7 cents to make one cent now.

I have to admit that nowadays I seldom have any “jingle” in my pockets — pennies or otherwise. I occasionally carry a few quarters for use in a vending machine or for giving to children to get a gumball or something. Many cashiers seem to frown when anything other than a card is presented for payment — even for a pack of gum.

When I was a kid in Richfield, the Ideal Dairy was located across the street from the Ashman Elementary School. My great-uncle Charles Ogden started it back in the 1920s. He was getting on in years during my school days.

After school, once in a while, if I was lucky, I would find Uncle Charlie in the front of the dairy. That was the retail sales area with a soda fountain counter with stools to sit and spin on. Uncle Charlie didn’t mind serving up a free ice cream cone to me. In fact, I think he enjoyed doing it.

And, it didn’t matter who was working, I could almost always afford to buy “penny candy.” It literally was one cent per piece of candy and some of it was two for a penny.

I guess pennies just aren’t worth much these days. I pick them up off the ground fairly frequently. For many people, it’s not worth the trouble to stoop down to pick them up.

I suppose people aren’t believers, like I am, in the luck of picking up a penny. The old saying goes, “Find a penny, pick it up; and all day long, you’ll have good luck.”

Let’s get back to the subject of copper. Some of us have thought that pennies are made of copper. That used to be true. Prior to 1982, pennies were 95% copper and 5% zinc. Now, pennies are 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper. It is estimated that there are 114 billion pennies in circulation right now.

Here’s a recent, related coincidence to our subject here. Last Saturday, I was at a championship baseball game for our grandson in Herriman. It was a good game, but it was a close loss. But we felt great about a terrific season.

As we were leaving the ballpark, we noticed that we could see, not far away, where the Kennecott Bingham Canyon Copper Mine was located. The GPS put it as 9 minutes away. So, after living in Utah my entire life, I went to the biggest open pit mine in the world, for the first time.

We paid the $6 per ticket tour fee and rode the bus to the observation points. It was quite a sight. The gigantic trucks down in the pit looked like “Hot Wheels” toys. If you haven’t seen it, don’t wait for over 70 years like I did.

It is considered to have produced more copper than any other mine in history. The mine also brings out significant amounts of gold and silver. It’s amazing to know that the mine has been such a phenomenal source of valuable minerals and metals. It reminded me that I still have much to learn about the great state of Utah.

So the next time someone wonders what you’re thinking about by saying, “Penny for your thoughts?,” tell them that you were thinking about pennies, their copper content, and how you get good luck from them — because, now you know.

— Merrill