As Ben Franklin is misquoted as saying (under his Poor Richard’s Almanack persona of Richard Saunders), a “penny saved is a penny earned.” Actually, the published bit of advice read: A penny saved is two-pence dear. These days, people probably relate better to the “penny earned” version, since we don’t see many two-pence coins these days. I wonder about the truth in the penny saved idiom, compared to times past.
Having said that, I was surprised this morning when my first customer of the day bought a cup of coffee and – as she was counting out the change – informed me that she had overpaid by one cent on her previous visit, and was going to recover that overpayment today by sliding over one cent less than the cash register total.
It threw me back, I’ll admit. Not over the penny. I don’t even quibble about nickels and dimes. If someone is in the ballpark, I’ll make up the rest myself. I’m easy to get along with, and regularly round down prices to make the change easier to pay or return.
I have no memory of the earlier transaction or overcharging – because naturally, I wouldn’t. Not knowingly. Not even a cent. Especially a cent. I don’t even bother to bend down to retrieve a penny on the sidewalk, as it has become more work for my knees that I care to invest.
But I worry that she was harboring ill thoughts all the while, believing I had shorted her a penny and wanting to recover it. There is a dish of change near the cash register in which at least a dollar’s worth of pennies reside, not to mention nickels, dimes, and quarters. Some folks just toss their change in there, and I leave it.
My customer must be a devotee of Richard Saunders and his Almanack advice, and I would probably be a lot better off financially if I treated my finances similarly. I’m sure over the course of the years, I have rounded down a fair amount of money. To my thinking, I’d rather cover it than have a customer worry about having the exact change, or holding sufficient coinage to keep from breaking a larger bill. It’s just my style.
In Ben Franklin’s day, a penny was a great big chocolate colored chunk of copper with some crude stamping on the front and back. At least that is how those old coins have survived. A cent is certainly more impressive as “a penny saved” if the coin features a date from colonial times. Poor Richard might not have been in that financial position had he taken his own advice.
Personally, I’m more fond of some of his other sayings, like – Fish and visitors stink in three days. Now THAT is an astute observation well worth a saved penny.