Weapons of Commerce: The Penny

With the world having already suffered multiple economic catastrophes over the centuries, everyone is on edge and the transportation of money is strictly regulated. It’s now public knowledge that monetary value is a form of potential energy, accumulated by the mere fact that people regard currency with value in trade. The potential energy of a $100 bill can bankrupt a coffee shop if activated with a detonator that undoes the minting process. People are on edge whenever someone pays with cash.

But many people overlook the penny. This small piece of copper-enclosed zinc has a special ratio of mass vs value that makes it impossible to detect with scanners. Terrorist organizations will load dump trucks with them, cover the top with a layer of construction debris, and are able to discreetly move thousands of dollars of financial-grade weapons materials anywhere in the world. Many small towns and city centers have been broken under economic depression caused entirely by detonating only pennies, leaving millions broke in this year alone.

Canada and other countries have already halted production of the penny now that they realize the danger it poses, but the US still manufactures far more than they need, unwilling to recognize that they may be manufacturing their own ruin.

Financial experts don’t know how exactly many pennies are needed for the worst case scenario, to shut down a stock exchange, but they’re all confident that there’s more than enough of them in circulation to do so should they fall into the wrong hands …

(Originally written 12/28/2015)