Where have the pennies gone?

We all know the anguish when we just cannot put two-and-two together. We know the answer is pretty obvious but just cannot think of it. Or we know there is a simple reason why something is happening in a certain way or someone is acting the way they do, but for the life of us we just cannot think what it is. Then, sudden relief. Something happens, something is said by someone or the obvious is noticed. Click goes the mind and you know the answer.

Yes, the penny drops and we declare it as such without a second thought of why we would use that particular expression -- or realising that it actually originates from a much more literal form of relief.

Some of us will remember the days when you first had to drop a penny in a slot on the door of a public toilet before you could get to the convenience on the other side of that door.

Another related expression, which was once used as a polite way to inform people why they should excuse you for a while and has fallen into disuse over time, is to say “Sorry but I have to spend a penny.”

But then not even on that front would a penny nowadays get you out of a predicament.  In some places, like our local department store, you can find a slot on the toilet door, but the going rate now seems to be R2.

Yes, even the cost of that has gone up!

There was a time when the penny was very versatile and useful in both commerce and language. Just think of other expressions like a penny for your thoughts or the time when it was worth your while to falsify a penny and people would say the bad penny keeps coming back.

There was even a time when my father would encourage us kids to be spendthrifts, telling us to save a penny and buy a farm!

But then I suppose the value of the penny could not last in this world of inflation. After all it apparently derives its name from the time of the rule of the Franks when Penin the Short in about 735AD  had his face minted onto the novus "Denarius" denarius.

However, although the penny has just about been wiped out by inflation in almost all corners of the world, the value of the wisdom captured by some of the expressions to which it has lent its name still holds true – like telling someone committing to something important like marriage: remember, in for a penny, in for a pound. No room for bad pennies there.