Most pennies produced by the U.S. Mint are given out as change but never spent; this creates an incessant demand for new pennies to replace them.
A conservative estimate holds that there are 240 billion pennies lying around the United States about 724 ($7.24) for every man, woman and child there residing.
We keep minting pennies because no one uses the pennies we mint. This creates a paradox where the production of pennies is continuously justified.
Since 1793, several hundreds of billions of pennies have been issued, but their mysterious fate often leaves us questioning the efficacy of this coin.
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