BUCKING THE SYSTEM: COINS STILL WORTHY FOR THE WISE AND THOSE LIGHT IN THE POCKETS

"A penny for your thoughts, a nickel for your kiss, and dime if you say you love me." Altogether, 16 cents is not a bad price for those items.

People don't value coins as spendable currency anymore, and I just don't understand why. It's as if counting cents is too time-consuming or something, and folks would rather stick to paper currency of no less than one dollar.

I've found this is true for most people, kids included. I can remember when the Tooth Fairy only left a quarter when she visited, but nowadays if she doesn't leave paper money kids will get an attitude, and adults receiving anything less than twenty-five cents after making a purchase at a store will often tell cashiers to "keep the change."

Well, not me, buddy. Either I don't make enough at what I'm doing or else I just can't manage my money, because all coins are valuable and spendable to me. I've paid for my gas with quarters more than once in my life, and I keep coin wrappers in Jerry's piggy bank "for a rainy day," which usually comes the day before pay day.

Once upon a time, everybody counted pennies. I for one have always been an aggressive penny collector, mainly because there was always stuff that I wanted that could be purchased using coins.

For example, as a child I loved to go to the store with my quarter in hand to buy a $100,000 candy bar, which in my day was the biggest candy bar on the rack. And I could walk down to Harris' Grocery Store after Sunday School every week because Mr. Harris sold lemon cookies for a penny each.

It was my plan, to enjoy church every Sunday, even if that meant hiding my loot between the pages of the hymn book to keep it out of the clutches of the ushers.

I was also the kid who kept everybody else waiting in line while the ice cream man counted my pennies in the semi-darkness, lit only by a nearby street lamp and the flickering lights on his truck. I liked strawberry sundaes, which at a 95 cents each were a big-ticket item that required a sandwich bag full of pennies.

My parents have always given me an allowance, and for awhile I resented the work I was required to do to earn it. But I got very creative when I discovered REAL money could be made not as a reward for performing a chore, but as a finder's fee for cleaning up after Dad.

I can remember many a Saturday afternoon as a child when I'd follow my father from resting place to resting place, waiting for an opportunity to "find" some of his money. Dad had a bad habit of throwing loose change into his pocket, which meant a couple of dollars could always be found if one checked the creases of the car seats, couches or Dad's favorite chair.

Maybe creative marketing is the reason people have forgotten the value of coins. When everything advertised is $1, or $19.99, or $299, it's really easy to think about the dollars and forget about the cents.

Well, I still recognize that something which costs 99 cents will cost one cent less in tax than an item that costs $1, and I'm on a personal mission to see the return of penny candy and penny cookies to area stores.

I also know that some of the best things in life can be purchased for about 16 cents. When Patrick sent me roses with my engagement ring attached, he taped one penny, one nickel and one dime on the card. The coins represented the lyrics to an old song: "A penny for your thoughts, a nickel for your kiss, a dime if you say you love me."

I think Patrick knew a bargain when he saw one.

~Tamara Zellars Buck is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.