Wayback Wednesday: A Penny Saved

 

Most of us remember being children and having--or better--finding a penny.  In our little corner store, some of the candy was 2 for 1 cent!

Oh the decisions!

I did have a weakness for Tootsie Rolls.  

What candy did you prefer?

As the penny is being phased out, I thought it would be fun to reminisce about pennies.  I thought of this because I am streamlining some sewing research and patterns.  This crossed my path:

Who was the clever person to use pennies to create sewing templates?  This had to be from a British magazine (yes, I've had some of those too) because we did not have a half penny since 1857.  The Brits demonetized their half penny in 1984.

In the U.S., the penny was originally bigger in size than our current penny.  In the early 19th century, there was a "Large Penny" which was over an inch in diameter; current pennies are .75 inches.  Below is a Large Penny in top left with other later pennies. 

Pennies were also used as templates for sewing  "Penny Mats".  Usually made of wool, many of us have made one or two of these in the last few decades.  

If you don't know what a penny "mat" or "rug" or "circle" is there is a great article here.

Also in this genre of wool mats is the Lambs Tongue Mat (I hate the name) which uses a more oval shape to create the mat:

Both are 19th century mats

This modern pattern uses both pennies and tongues:

Have you made any of these kinds of mats?

Have a safe and happy day!