Help me fill in my penny collection. If you have a penny I need, comment on this blog. I will mail you a hand-painted watercolor, 4" x 6" on receipt of my penny. If you want to fill in more, I will send you an 8" x 10" watercolor. The penny does not need to be collector's quality. I'm looking for cross-Canada participation, and maybe a few penny pals. This little project has already received international attention. Who knew our pennies traveled so far?
The Story
Now a little on how this all started. Around about the warm and hazy summer of 2009, I read an article about the upcoming
demise of the penny. In 2007 our Canadian Mint sponsored a poll, and it turned out that the average Canadian cares little about the penny. Our little copper companion weighed down wallets, but nobody cared one way or another. I knew then that the coin's days were numbered. Watching out my window at my granddaughter play with her neighbour friends, I hatched my plan. I asked the girls to help me fill in a collection, one penny per year, to fill up my page. Off they went hunting for copper treasures, squinting in the bright summer sun, to see if they had a winning year. I warmed in my grandmother's satisfaction of seeing young ones occupied with a little thing, hardly consequential at all. But so much fun.
Those three energetic girls filled in a lot, but not all, of my sheet. In the past few years the collection gathered dust in the back of my to-do pile, just as my kijiji ad gathers dust somewhere around page thirty. This spring, flush from some personal successes, I decided to finish off the collection. I would broadcast far and wide, and finally complete the penny sheet for my granddaughter, Naomi. These past few months have been more than successful, leaving only five spots left since 1940.
All that is left to fill is
1944, 1948, 1954, 1957, and 1958. The year 2001 is a shade of it's original form
having spent far too long in the water pump of my daughter's washing
machine. This has been so much fun I am now moving to fill two more
sheets for the two girls who helped Naomi fill in the collection that
golden summer a few years ago.
Here are the pennies (and quantities) I am looking for:
1941 (2)
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1942 (2)
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1943 (2)
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1944 (3)
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1945 (2)
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1946 (2)
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1947 (2)
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1948 (3)
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1949 (2)
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1950 (1)
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1951 (2)
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1952 (2)
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1953 (2)
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1954 (3)
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1955 (2)
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1956 (2)
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1957 (3)
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1958 (3)
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1959 (2)
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1960 (2)
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1961 (1)
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1962 (2)
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1963 (2)
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1964 (2)
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1965 (2)
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1966 (1)
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1967 (1)
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1968 (2)
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1969 (2)
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1970 (2)
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1971 (2)
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O
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O
|
O
|
|
|
|
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
|
|
|
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
| O |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
1996 (1)
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| O |
O
| O | O |
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
|
O
| O |
O
|
O
| O | O |
O
|
O
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Here's a picture of Naomi's penny collection so far:
...and here is how the two girls' collection is coming along.
Tickling My Fancy
Besides passing on a story and heritage to Naomi and her friends, I am tickled to instigate a project where items of nominal value are traded to the mutual satisfaction of the traders. Pennies have no intrinsic value. But there is effort on the part of the collector to find a prized year, and satisfaction in discovery. Similarly, there is nominal value in paper and pigment. The artist is offering time and talent in exchange. Funny, the cost of postage outweighs the nominal value of the product we are mutually shipping. Yet there's a feeling of fulfillment between collector and artist; a fair exchange.
Progress To Date
Two acquaintances from
www.jehovahs-witness.net filled in the king's portion of my empty spots. It is a delight to see your packages arrive, and I am so excited about creating some watercolors for you both. Though this project did not go viral, it has been fun. As an added bonus, never asked for but received, Canadian pennies that are older than anyone alive:
And here's an example of my artwork:
By the way, here's the results so far of my attempt to broadcast to a wide audience and reach that elusive tipping point. I posted this request on
Blogger,
Facebook,
Google+,
twitter, and
kijiji.ca. No nibbles until I posted on a discussion board I frequent,
www.jehovahs-wtiness.net. There, I encountered three generous collectors who radically filled in my board..and then some!
These results inspired me to revisit my
Klout scores, which have climbed, with a little more disclosure on my part, to 41.48.
The first painting heading out, a watercolor of a Great Blue Heron, 8" x 10", based on a nature photograph by Ron Davis.
Thank you, Tony, intrepid browser of kijiji, for adding to the collection. This is what you picked:
And the latest painting winging it's way across the continent:
This is the memory of the confluence of the Smoky and the Sulphur rivers with the bold contrast of poplar with Spruce, in an untamed part of our world.
My next two contributors provided some inspiration, after I learned a bit about their own interests. For a nine year old girl:
This is a mixed media, pen-and-ink, sparkly glue, and some familiar
loom bands.
And for a seven year old boy, something smells "fishy":
Another mixed media, pen, ink, and
Nori. There's room to incorporate a penny if they like. Maybe find a special penny, one that marks the year they were born for instance.
Word of mouth continues to get me mileage. My friends Val and Dailan filled in a king's share for the two friends.
