“Save your pennies for a rainy day.”

It is an idiom that we will all know, and we all likely have utilized it at numerous points in our lives.

Save your change, you will have some extra money for your rainy day.

Benjamin Franklin “coined” it right. “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

In our youth and throughout most of our adult lives, we have saved pennies along with dimes, nickels, quarters, and maybe even half dollars.

We had our piggy banks, jars, bottles, and coffee cans. Saving change was once valued as much as saving dollars.

But like everything else in this ever-revolving world, times have changed for our change. The use of bank and credit cards have been an everyday standard as a form of payment, and dollars and change continue to be outliers.

How many times have you tried to pay for something with cash, change, or the combination, and the sales clerk gives you a strange look, waiting for you to pull out a card?

Yet, that trend may be changing, as some businesses — primarily food outlets — will charge you less for cash.

However, using change has become a lost art for most of us.

Using change when I can, I know I am in the minority.

I still keep loose change in my car and in my pants’ pockets. Once going through a McDonald’s, the worker couldn’t give me the change due me back because he didn’t have any to exchange. I use my change to get my favorite hamburger at Cook Out, McDonald’s southern competitor and it’s worth a try, as I now know the exact amount.

The majority of toll booths use an EZ Pass format, and it’s usually hard to find a manned booth for change. If you do, you’ll get a nasty look or a refusal to hand them any loose change.

Late in 2025, the U.S. Mint suspended production of new pennies, but they stated there are plenty still in circulation.

Despite perceived negative connotations, 38% of adults have collected coins or still collect them in some fashion, according to market data.

That number can be recently attributed to collecting bullion — gold coins — has been the current pathway to coin collecting, mainly for investing. You’ve seen the commercials.

If you do have any kind of coin collection, its value probably won’t experience much growth, but it shouldn’t lose any major ground. Having a 1913 Liberty Head Nickel or a 1943 Lincoln Bronze Wheat Penny, you can become an instant millionaire.

Having some loose change in your pocket or your car isn’t a bad thing. Neither is having a change jar at home.

Change also keeps a link with our past, notably our youth. Where have the days of penny candy gone?

If you find a handful or two of loose change, you can find a way to use or save it.

Change can help you avoid pulling out that extra dollar, and also have some extra help for those unpredictable rainy days.

Email Jeff Moeller at tneditor@tnonline.com