CENTS

After more than a century in circulation, the penny has become both a worthless relic of inflation and a prized collector’s item. The last copper pennies were minted in 1982, after which they have been struck in zinc. A penny from any given year will always be worth exactly 1¢, according to the US Treasury, but the copper in pre-1982 pennies has a metal value of approximately 3¢. Recognizing these discrepancies in value, Rutherford Chang removed 10,000 copper coins from circulation and archivally documented them. The final state of these 10,000 copper cents are inscribed on 10,000 satoshis, while the physical coins are smelted and cast into a solid 68-pound copper block. This metal block is rendered as a three-dimensional digital model and inscribed as a 4-megabyte ordinal, comprising the entirety of Bitcoin block #839969. As the traditional penny fades into irrelevance and its production is ultimately terminated, its value can continue to be redefined. rutherfordchang.com/cents