Byline: Alison Hardie Senior News Writer
THEY lie forgotten and gathering dust at the back of sofas, wedged down car seats and in jam jars, yet if Britons were to club together their unwanted pennies, then they would be GBP 65 million better off.
Since their introduction in 1971, the vast majority of the 6.5 billion spurned 1p pieces have ended up on the street, according to new research, which found that up to GBP 26 million has been lost in this way.
The superstition of picking up a penny for good luck has been replaced by a fear of looking mean by pocketing the smallest coin of the realm.
24in. t5 tube light ledA further GBP 11 million in pennies is lost to the economy in the bottom of women's handbags, while GBP 7.8 million has been lost in cars and GBP 5.9 million in the more traditional resting place - the back of a sofa.
Since the one new pence was introduced - the only coin name to survive decimalisation - the Royal Mint has issued 17.2 billion 1p pieces. Some 38 per cent of all pennies issued by the Royal Mint are now lost, with the average adult admitting they mislay at least five pennies a week.
The penny is the bugbear of plumbers, who say a 1p coin falling from a pocket is responsible for countless washing machine blockages. In the United States, a debate has raged over several years about whether to abolish the one cent piece. But simple economics and inflation are the biggest enemy of the British penny. When the farthing was removed from circulation in 1960 and the halfpenny in 1984, both were worth more in real terms than the 1p is now.
Last night, a spokeswoman for the Royal Mint said: "There are no plans to withdraw the one pence from circulation."
However, Nick Holmes, curator of numismatics at the Royal Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, said that when a coin begins to be perceived as worthless, its demise follows shortly after.
"Coins have fallen out of circulation throughout history, particularly in times when coins were made out of precious metal. If a coin was made of silver but had a low denomination it would eventually become uneconomic to make them.
"Coins today do not have the same intrinsic value, but recent history has Dimmable LED Down Light K1108 - 2x1x1W / 2x1x3W shown with the farthing that they can stop being minted but kept in circulation before later being withdrawn," he said. "If things continue the way they are with the penny, perhaps this could be its fate."
According to the BBC's chief economist, Evan Davies, when it comes to the penny "the logic of abolition is impeccable".
COIN-OPERATED INVENTIVENESS
THE humble one-pence piece may be a nuisance in one's pocket and add weight but little value to a purse, but since it was introduced people have found numerous inventive ways to make it earn its keep.
On the golf course, a penny is a useful guide in the absence of a more traditional plastic ball-marker.
Indeed, on some courses abandoned pennies are nearly as commonplace as abandoned golf balls.
In a bar, a stray penny makes a useful prop for a wobbly table, saving pounds in the long run from replacing spilled drinks and cleaning drink-spattered clothes.
In school playgrounds, generations of boys have vied with one another to win the spoils in hard-fought games of shove-penny.
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