penny for your thoughts

You know those moments when you or your significant other does something, and the other person reacts strongly, and you think, "Hold on, now -- am I nuts, or is he?"

We had one of those moments this weekend. I would love to know what others' reactions are to this scenario.

It's pretty basic, and we've all been there -- you see a penny on the floor. Or perhaps you drop a penny, though that's slightly different, so let's stick with, you find a penny on the floor.

Do you pick it up, or do you let it sit there?
There are variables, of course. Is the floor in your own home, or is it on some nice clean carpet in your office, or is it on the floor of a bathroom (eww), or some other sticky, high-traffic area (a sidewalk, a gutter, a coffee shop)? These might be determining factors.

All I can say is, the specific scenario I was in occurred at home, in our kitchen. We were cleaning the house for a church meeting there the next day.

I saw a penny on the kitchen floor, and I pitched it in the trash. I might've put it on the counter to be dealt with later, but it was kind of gooped up -- had some gross sticky stuff on it, the way coins do sometimes. So, I pitched it.

There's some backstory here with my husband commenting previously on 'people who throw money away' -- and he did mean literally -- but I guess at the time I didn't think he meant mere pennies. I mean, who cares that deeply about A (singular) penny?

So I thought to ask him. I baited him with something like, 'are you gonna get on my back about throwing a penny away just now? It IS money.'

He looked horrified, and stricken. 'DID you???' he said. He then dug around in the trash until he found it, and stuck it in his pocket. To be forgotten about and washed sometime this coming week, no doubt.

I dunno. I find that odd. I mean, is it worth my time to pick up a penny -- a mere penny! -- and walk over to my wallet and put it in? Especially if it's goopy?

He's got change sitting around all over the place, as well. Is it really going to ever get taken somewhere and turned in for 'usable' money? To be determined.

I do use pennies. I do keep a few in the coin area of my wallet. It's quite satisfying to pull out exact change now and then, after all.

I think my time in Germany affected me in this way, a bit. The military has deemed it not monetarily sensible to ship pennies overseas, so on base, they round up or down to the nearest nickel during transactions. I LOVED that. I'm so on board with the folks who want to do away with pennies. Let's do away with dollar bills, while we're at it, and go to dollar coins. (I know we have them, but no one uses them ...) I'm all for that.

So. What do you think? Am I insanely wasteful and unappreciative? Or is Matt just a touch psycho here?
Go ahead and cast your vote. :)