Imagine a world. Now in this world, imagine that there are no pennies, and bring in glow in the dark dino-quarters. Sound ridiculous yet? Well, welcome to Canada as of April 16, 2012. The federal government announced in its recent round of budget cuts that the Royal Canadian Mint would no longer be minting pennies as of this fall, saving $11M annually. But wait, there’s more! The Royal Canadian Mint announced this week that a special edition quarter – one with a close up of the Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai – will be debuting on April 16. The best part? IT GLOWS IN THE DARK.
For me, this is exciting news. Collection of 1,327 pennies notwithstanding, I can’t stand the penny. It’s useless, any decent amount of money you’d have in pennies is cumbersome, it’s a pain to roll, and it’s just so darn ugly! I mean, let’s face it, if you had to pick between a shiny golden loonie or a rusty looking copper penny? I know which one I’d pick, even if it weren’t one hundred times as valuable as the other… Point being, the penny serves very little purpose, it is a pain to carry, and it costs more to make than what it’s worth! Yeeup, for each penny produced, the Royal Canadian Mint spends 1.6 cents. The prosecution rests its case.
As for the glow in the dark quarters, well, see for yourself:
All I can say is… Awesome!