Have you ever considered the lowly Canadian penny as an object of wonder? If you reflect on the life of a cent, it may raise its status. Let’s imagine.
It is 1948 and our fresh one cent copper coin is minted in Ottawa as envisioned by artist G. E. Kruger Gray. The new maple twig design has made Johnny Jr. so wide-eyed that he is proud to add it to his collection. The collection comes in handy as a source of income when the lad becomes the first in his family to go to university. The buyer is a dealer who owns a seedy subterranean coin shop near the Bloor Street subway station in Toronto. Years later, Alan, the dealer’s new customer, fingers salty from fresh roasted cashews, examines the coin. While the dealer isn’t looking, Alan palms Johnny Jr.’s once treasured possession, sprints up the stairs to the busy streets above and melts into the pedestrian crowd. When he gets home, he searches his pockets for his loot only to find a hole.
Meanwhile, Julie shrieks with delight as her four-year-old eyes spy our coin on the sidewalk.
She leaps off her red three-wheeler before her friend can grab it. Our coin assumes pride of place beside a seashell on Julie’s white chest of drawers. During a rainy-day game in the bedroom, our coin disappears. Julie’s parents split up. The furniture and house are sold. Newlyweds, Fred and Ginger load up their U-Haul with the white chest of drawers and head out to Calgary. “Hey! A penny!” Ginger shouts as she is cleaning out the drawers to make them ready for a fresh coat of paint. “Every little bit counts,” responds frugal Fred. Rolled up with other coins, our penny helps the young couple buy an electric kettle.
Gladys is in the department store helping her granddaughter pick out a colouring book. She thanks the cashier for the change and tells her she’ll soon be going back to Nova Scotia, seeing how her visit with her son-in-law is coming to an end. It’s a long train ride home, so Gladys is relieved to see her neighbours when she disembarks in Truro. Billy peeks his head through the broken fence, “You came back.” Gladys tells him all about her trip as the two of them arrange bedding out plants in the rich garden soil. Gladys pays Billy for his help with coins from the small purse she has in her apron. Our penny gets dropped in the soil unnoticed.
Peter, a 1990s starving artist, arrives in Truro with his wife and growing family. Gaining much needed employment at the university, he figures the quaint old house nearby will be a perfect location and cheap too. Before the papers are signed, his young children scamper to the garden getting hopelessly dirty. The eldest, Maria, with mud in her shoes calls out, “Look what I found!” Peter takes our coin from her chubby fingers and decides it’s a good omen. He slips it into his pocket, planning to make it into a necklace. He wears it still as he searches for inspiration for his paintings. Our penny has inspired many to wonder.