December 28, 2025 • 27 mins
No more pennies for your thoughts. Clay and Buck debate getting rid of coins. Big Penny is coming for Clay. Woman tells an incredible story about how she saved 35 jars of pennies to divorce her husband. Clay owes Hannity on several bets.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Play Travis with the Clay and Buck Show, wishing you
and your family of very merry Christmas and a happy
New Year.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Buck Sexton Here the entire Clay and Bucks Show wish
you and your family a warm Christmas season and a
joyful New Year. Sunday Hang is brought to you by
Chalk Natural Supplements for guys, gals, and nothing in between.
Fuel your day at Chalk dot Com, bold reverence, and
occasionally random.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
The Sunday Hang with Clay and Buck Podcast. It starts now.
I just put up a pole question Buck that we
can have some fun with this too. Today, the last
pennies are being produced, that is, the one cent coin
is basically being phased out. Trump came in and said
the penny doesn't make sense. It costs more than to
(00:50):
than to produce it. Should we eliminate all coins? This
may be stepping into this. May it like when I
went after flute players. I'm a hard Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I saw on this one producer Greg, I'm gonna get
We're gonna give you a minute. I don't know if
he's by the mic at in NYC, or if he
wants to just do a talkback or whatever. He seems
like he's not down for and I want to know,
why would anyone want there to still be pennies.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
We need to have currency for every person. Because you
eliminate the penny, you eliminate the nickel. That's it's the
first step on the slippery slope to getting rid of
all currency, and then everything can be tracked by the government.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
All the time.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Okay, well, I'm with I'm with you on the digital
dollar thing, Producer Greg, so that you're I'm with you
on that, But pennies.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
When was the last time you used a penny? You'd
be surprised how much jangling coins does Producer Greg have
in his pocket right now, just jangling around, weighing down
his pants, dragging him down. I'm with you, Buck, I
think we should eliminate all coins. I don't think there
should be coin currency anymore.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
That he's gonna be a scorching hot take that we
didn't expect to be scorching.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Maybe we may get fired up and get attacked on
this one, but we're right. We may have stepped into
a coin loving buzzsaw here, Buck.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
It is.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
The comments are going to be very, very funny. I
think on this the poll you can go vote in it.
Thousands of you are already weighing in, and the general
consensus is it's close to fifty to fifty on whether
we should be eliminating all coins. The reason why I
brought that up was because today is reportedly the last
(02:35):
day I saw this on Fox News, that they are
going to be producing the penny. It definitely costs more
to produce the penny than the penny is worth, and
so in the future, the smallest coin would now be
the nickel. And I think going forward, you're going to
see more and more arguments about, hey, do we still
(02:55):
need to continue to produce coins. There would still be
coins in circulation, probably for you know, the next hundred years.
I mean, I don't know how long it would go on.
Here's a fun stat for you, buck, what percentage of
money that exists in the world today actually physically exists?
(03:16):
What money? Fifteen? Good guess I'm told it's ten. Okay,
I was. I was in the RELs, I was in
the row. But yeah, I think that will blow a
lot of your minds out there. In other words, if
you went to the bank and you have X dollars,
and everybody went to the bank and they have X dollars.
I mean this is sort of a bank run. The
(03:38):
physical notes that represent the vast majority of the wealth
in the world, it doesn't exist. It's just numbers on
a computer screen. Only about ten percent of the dollars
in America, of the euros in America, of all of
the different currencies physically exist. That's something kind of interesting.
(04:01):
And the younger you are, young people, and I sell
like an old guy every time I say that. Young people,
and I'm going to be an old guy. They don't
even carry money, I mean, like the actual physical carrying
of money. They have their iPhone, they pay with Apple Pay,
they have credit cards, they don't physically carry around cash
at all. They have Venmo, they have Zel, they have
(04:24):
all these different ways to share expenses when they're buying,
you know, going out for dinners or whatever else, concert tickets.
It's kind of wild. We're moving towards a cashlest society already,
and I think we're moving there in really rapid fashion.
Much to producer Greg Chagrin.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Well, yes, and I do agree that there are concerns
about not having the privacy and the ability to just
have currency that the government is not tracking and aware
of it at all times. But I don't know man pennies
not a fan of pennies quarters.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I'm a little more open to you ever work retail?
Did you ever work at a place where you had
to accept cash, make change like process transactions. I've done
a lot of retail in my life.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Tell everybody Clay, Abercrombie and Fitch were they only were
they only hired good looking people. When Clay did it,
he at least loves to remind us all. My wife, too,
is very shy about it. I'm like, I'm like, so
you were hired at the Florida Abercrombie or you know,
Fitch or like the Orlando area or whatever because you
were cute, right, Like, just say it.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
She's like, no, I was a hard worker. I'm like,
right right. It was a the retail jobs that I had.
I worked at American Eagle, now famous because of the
Sydney Sweeney jeans. For years. I worked at a company
called Media Play in the book section. The idea there
was you could buy CDs, you could buy books. Some
(05:52):
of you will remember the concept big box retailer. And
then I worked at Abercrombie and Fitch, Pentagon City Mall
in Washington, d C. While I was in college. One
of the best jobs I ever had buck pretty girls
walk in. You got an immediate excuse to talk to
pretty girls. It's like, I mean, that's I'll tell you
the truth. Man.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I got caught up in the world and this was
really common in New York, the world of the unpaid
corporate internship I had, and in retrospect, I got scammed.
I think it would have been way better now. Some
some places I got like I worked at the Washington
Institute for Neary's Policy and they because they actually had
(06:33):
interns do real work, they paid you like you were paid.
It was you know, it was maybe three or four
hundred bucks a week or something at the time, but
it was like at the time living in DC with
three roommates over the summer, that was real money. But
I remember other places where I worked and I did.
I worked at the Council on Foreign Relations as an intern.
They didn't pay, and that place has a huge see
(06:56):
people like CUFAR, that's the globalist.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
And the illuminati.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yeah, I was an intern there, trust me, No one cared,
no one remembered me. They didn't pay and people were
there was someone who got an actual recommendation from I
think it was the Crown Prince of Jordan or something
for one of those internships, Clay, I mean people would
go all out for these didn't matter, these unpaid internships.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
It doesn't people. I was like, Oh, it'll transmit a
new job.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
What I'm saying is, I think your experience of actually
working in commerce and capitalism a much better play for people,
and it establishes something of an economic libido. You're like, oh,
work harder, work longer, more money. An internship where you're
not paid so you can put it on your resume,
you're actually incentivized to do as little as possible and
(07:44):
get out of there as fast as possible.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
And I think they're diminishing the number of unpaid internships
in general.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Oh no, it's there are rules against it now. There
are rules against it now because it became so exploitative.
Like I did want at CBS eving News, but I
got school credit for it, so that seemed like a fair.
But I did summer internships a number of them, starting
when I was even in high school, where I didn't
get any I didn't get paid, and I was just
basically fetching coffee and making xeroxes so I could put
(08:13):
on my resume that I this was a thing in
the nineties of those of you who are elder millennials.
Not you old gen X people. Gen X people, you
gotta worry about your creaking joints and bones. The elder millennials,
you know what I'm talking about. You we all got
scammed man, late nineties. It was like Clay, I worked
at a a at a music label for a summer
(08:34):
for a couple months, and it was a complete waste
of my time.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
This is unexpected. You worked at a music label for.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Like a month. Yeah, like an internship, total waste of time.
They're like the biggest I think it was supposed to
be all summer. I legitimly told my parents, like, I'm
gonna go play tennis and stead this is a waste
of time.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So yeah, what was the music label? Death Row? No, no, no, no,
it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
It was actually a music publishing company, so it was
kind of like did A and R and it was
owned publishing, right. Clay was the most boring interurn. I
don't even remember. I was like seventeen.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
It's the worst thing I ever worst way I ever
spent a summer in college. When I was at GW undergrad,
I went and worked on Capitol Hill as part of
being a student in DC, and that was actually somewhat
useful and interesting. But yeah, there's a ton of those
that don't have any impact at all. I was just
thinking nowadays, when you work retail, and a lot of
(09:28):
you out there who work in who work in restaurants
or whatever else. I don't even remember the last time
I saw someone pay in a restaurant with cash. You know,
they have all these mobile devices now where they can
come right right to your table and like take all
your money. I don't even remember. A lot of places
(09:48):
won't even take cash now. We used to. The reason
I was bringing it up buck is at the end
of the day at American Eagle, and it doesn't seem
very safe now. We would have a big bag of
cash that we would deposit into the bank, that we
would clear out the cash registers with. And I was
thinking about it the other day because if I tried
to explain that to my kids, they wouldn't even understand.
(10:10):
And it was filled with coins, and it was filled
with cash, and we had to tally it up, and
we had to take it, and we had to deposit
it at the end of the day. There's never any security.
I remember thinking, this doesn't make a lot of sense.
There's thousands and thousands of dollars, but that was what
we had to do because the physical encapsulation of money
was such a thing. And remember in Breaking Bad when
(10:31):
he starts to make real amounts of money, great television show,
and he doesn't even know what to do with all
the cash. This is one of the challenges of the
drug trade in general. It's all a cash business. It
takes a lot of space when you have actual, the
physical manifestation of all that wealth.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Somebody can tell me what the This was a famous
problem that Pablo Escobar, the world's drug kingpin back in
the eighties and nineties and really the original public enemy
number one of the US government in the pre War
on Terror terror era, he had something that they would
call spoilage clay, which was they had so they could
(11:09):
not find a place to put all the cash that
they were making by selling cocaine in the United States,
and so they would store it underground in palettes and
rats would eat it. And there were some crazy figure,
tens of millions of dollars a year. They thought they
were losing to rats eating their cash because that's how
(11:30):
much cash they were making in the illegal drug trade.
One thing that used to exist in New York. It
doesn't really anymore, but there were a number of restaurants
that were famous play for being cash only. Yeah, and
it was basically because it was like they weren't really
reporting all the money they were making.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
You know, that was the idea issue.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yes, but the irs got way better at calculating the
you know, because they can base it off your inventory,
So what you buy, What are you buying monthly? Oh really,
you're only making that much, but you're buying this much.
So they have ways of figuring this stuff out.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Instaurants that was huge. They would avoid reporting the actual
dollars that came into the building. And now obviously you
can't do that with credit card and a lot of
you out there who get tips, it's way easier to
track your tips now in a credit card era than
it ever was when you just got cash handed to
you Sundays with Clay and buck. A lot of you
(12:28):
weighing in this is gonna be like the flutes buck,
they're coming for me. A lot of you with your
flute playing, quarters in your hand, your rolls of pennies.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I'm just gonna say, if someone finds you in the
driveway of your nice, brand new house bludgeoned and there's
a flute and a handful of pennies next to the body,
we're all gonna know what happened.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
That's right. I'm in potential danger here. I want to
take this call because I don't even understand how it's possible.
There is a woman, Jen, She says, she is in
the southeastern United States. You said you only escaped your
husband because you were able to save pennies. Is Jin there?
Speaker 5 (13:13):
Yes, sir, Good afternoon, gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
All right, Jen, how many pennies did you save? What
did escaping your husband cost you? What did you buy?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
I bought a lawyer for one thousand dollars as a retainer,
using thirty five jar thirty five court sized glass jars
on six shelves in the back of my pantry, all
filled with pennies.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
How many years did it take you to save up
that many pennies?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (13:46):
It took me about it took me about two and
a half years.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
So were you thinking the whole time, I'm saving these
pennies so I can afford to divorce my husband. And
what did the lawyer think when his retainer fee is
paid in thirty five jugs of pennies.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
My lawyer was amazing. And what I was doing was
I was slowly collecting pennies and other change because he
was looking in my wallet after I would go grocery
shopping for my cash. And my lawyer was very amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So was this just this is like an incredible story. Yeah,
this is pretty crazy. So you hid the coins that
you were getting back as change on like grocery store
trips and whatnot, and as a result, you were able
to retain an attorney. So it's not just pennies you
were having quarters, like just all the change you could
get you were seeking.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
There was change jars. You kept change jars together and
you were able to get a lawyer.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
It was it was thirty five jars of pennies alone
with an addition of mixed all together, mixed together, so
it was thirty five pennies, thirty five jars of pennies only,
and then additional change as well. But it was over
one thousand dollars in just pennies.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
So what would have happened if the if I had
won and there were was now The reality is change
is going to be circulating for the rest of our lives.
What they're doing today is they are just stopping production
of more pennies, so they'll continue to circulate for the
rest of our lives. But what would you have done
if change didn't exist?
Speaker 5 (15:37):
I wouldn't have been able to get out still be
married probably.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Wow, Well that's quite a story, I gotta say. Have
you ever seen the Shawshank redemption?
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Patience is a virtue? Be virtuous, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I just remind thank you for calling in Clay. It
reminds me of what Andy Dufrayne, right, taking one piece
of dirt at a time and then he tunnels out.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Remember that. It's an amazing part of the story. That's
also the story of Alcatraz. If you visit Alcatraz, the
only people to ever escape from Alcatraz dug their way
out through the back of their gel cell there and
they then climbed on the pipes all the way out.
(16:23):
And we never have figured out what happened to those guys.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
By the way, speaking of pennies and coinage and bills
in circulation. I did check back on this one, and
according to Pablo Escobar's brother at the time, who was
also his accountant for the operations of the Median cartel's
importation of cocaine, and I don't believe heroin, but mostly
(16:48):
just cocaine. In the United States play, their spoilage, which
was rats eating the cash and just physical loss to
the elements of of the cash that they were storing,
was two billion.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Dollars a year. Unbelievable. I mean, just like they're.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Like, oh, a big rainstorm, the cash got wet and
the rats ates. We were losing two billion dollars a year.
That's how much cash they had.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I mean, I think the answer some of you out
there probably wondering why we only go up to one
hundred dollar bills, for those of you that are strongly
committed to cash, it's because they don't want to make
it easier for the storage of money for illicit transactions.
In other words, if we had a thousand dollar bill,
(17:36):
you can imagine how much more money could be stored illicitly.
And there's been talk about the Euro potentially replacing one
hundred dollar bill, and you know, because if you're engaged
in criminal activity, you want the largest denomination bill possible
to way, what's the most cash?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
What's the most cash you've ever seen physically present? It's
a great question. One time, ten can I oh, I saw,
I saw several million dollars in cash?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
One well, you carried back in the day at the CIA,
you guys had go bags filled with lots of cash, right,
can neither confirm nor deny.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I'm just saying I saw a lot of cash I saw.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I mean, I told you back in the day the
US meant so. I've seen the big palettes of cash
before there. But in terms of physical cash that I've
ever seen, I think it was about ten grand is
the most that I've ever seen physically present one place.
I can just tell you that.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
It's It's funny also when you see these movies and
they're like I need ten million dollars and someone shows
up with like a briefcase.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Oh no, no, no, it's gonna be.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Like Duffel bags. You're talking Duffel bags for ten million dollars.
It's gonna be a bit more than a a simple
valise or a briefcase. That's not going to get it
done for you. Just throwing that out there for ant
of you who are planning like a bond villain style,
you know bank situation. Yeah you can just to play
some of these people that are furious because the pennies
(19:04):
going away, because we're deluged in them right now. I
just think that it's a shame that they can't actually
like as part of the show, you know, throw pennies
at you to show their displeasure, because that would just
be fun.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
But yes, go ahead, let's see. Oh man, so many
different ones of these let's go. A lot of people
are saying they use coins for family fun. This is,
for instance, what Justin from Arizona KFYI double D is saying,
(19:35):
I think we.
Speaker 6 (19:36):
Should keep the coins. I'm with your producer. We have
a thing we call the family fun jar. So all
of our loose change goes into there, and when it
fills up, we cash it in and go do something
fun as a family.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
That's a cool idea. If you're regularly bringing cash into
the house, Now.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Have you ever done that where you've it is deeply satisfying.
And I did this for many years. I had I
had a change jar I was I had very little
money and I was working for the government, and I
had a change jar and I would go to one
of those like Coinstar one of those places, because also
I remember I went once to a bank and they
(20:18):
gave me the little like TUTSI roll things to wrap
them up in, and I did the math on this
in my head. I'm like, this is I'm paying myself
like three dollars an hour in terms of just co
was not good. So yeah, Coinstar one of those things.
But I've definitely gone out with a buddy of mine
who used to do this too, and they like, get
like a Chinese all you can eat, you know, seventeen
(20:40):
dollars with the coins you have together, and so I'm
gonna tell you it's very satisfying, very satisfied.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
I would say probably the most common is the going
through I think tolls now tend to also accept credit cards,
but you know that feeling when you're driving and you're like, oh,
I don't have much cash and there's a toll coming up.
Everything else I don't. I don't think I've had very
I'm trying to think of the last time I had
physical possessions of coins. I don't pay cash for anything.
(21:10):
I don't. I'm trying to think, what's the last time
you paid cash for something? Do you remember? I don't.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Uh yeah, I'm trying to think, actually, uh no, oh, church,
the donation in the I actually have a like a
little cash like box that every Sunday I just go
to for putting in the cash box at church.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
I think you can do.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
A check, like I see, I'm not casting dispersions here, Okay,
it's church. I see some of the older parishioners do checks, yes,
But to me, I'm like, I'd rather just give them
a you know, give them a bill. So that's the
only place that I just realized is I have cash
on hand for church and in case we get a
delivery and I have to get I also ow tips
(21:56):
for delivery guys.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
That's what it is, tip tips for tips for tips.
This is the last time that I remember giving cash.
It used to be when the boys were younger and
we had regular babysitters. Babysitters only dealt in cash. That
was like, oh, I want to get my haircut business.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
When I get my when my Cuban Americans put on
the Buena Visa Social Club, give me a tiny coffee
and give me fancy haircut.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I give those guys cash. I will also point this out.
My wife just takes money out of my wallet and
the kids do too sometimes because I'm the only person
in the house that actually has cash, so on the
rare event when we need cash. But having said that,
I don't remember the last time I got coined, like
(22:40):
I do not have physically in my possession right now.
I don't think I have any coins.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
You're like a time warp man. You're sitting there with
your actual newspaper made of paper, with your dollar bills
and your kids coming over borrowing twenties from you. This
is like nineteen ninety eight over in the Travis household.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Well, why would you want to leave behind the greatest
year that has ever existed in the history of the world.
I'd like to go back to nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
The late nineties were a great time in America.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
I will agree with that. I can't. I cannot tell
a lie. It's very important. Clay Travis with the Clay
and Buck Show, wishing you and your family a very
merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Sunday Sizzle with
Clay and Fuck clay ll.
Speaker 7 (23:28):
I think this whole conversation about Clay not carrying cash
is his justification for not paying his sports bets to
Sean Hannity.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Clay Hannity money, I've lost that money.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I've lost every bet to Hannity, and he's been talking
about it lately. And I saw him in person on Thursday,
and I was just like, man, I didn't get a chance.
I haven't been to the ATM.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
So you know, Sean wallattft left your wallet and your
other suit, Jack, is that where we are?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
I had the TuS on, I had the tucks on
at the Patriot Wards. I'm not usually having the wallet
in the tuxpants and so it's just tough timing for me.
And uh yeah, that is uh that is very very funny.
A lot of great reactions, by the way, pouring in
on many different topics out there, including all of you
people who love change pocket change, all of you men
(24:24):
out there with ten pounds of pocket change and one
of your pockets pulling down your pants. That's why you
have to wear a belt buckle, because the change is
just overloading your your pants otherwise dragging you down. And
let's see, I want to catch up with all of these.
You know, I will say I was reading an article
(24:48):
the original silver buck in the in the coins I
believe stopped around nineteen sixty, and so an average quarter
and half dollar I think is now worth if it's
pre nineteen sixty, because we've seen precious metals prices go
up to such an extent. I think if you find
(25:08):
a half dollar or a quarter that is full silver,
they're now actually worth over three dollars each. And I
don't want you to look to me to be your
precious metals expert, so you can do your own research.
But they stopped making one hundred percent silver coins. I
believe it was sometime around nineteen sixty, and if you
find them from before, they're actually worth way more than
(25:32):
the face value of the coin. To try to win
back coin officionados out there.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Well, you know, in ancient Rome they did this. They
had initially in their coinage. Early Roman coins had silver.
They were silver, they were made of silver and almost entirely.
And then over time they started the debasement of their
own coinage by putting less and less silver in the coins.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Didn't That also can tribute to insane rates of lead
poisoning the way that they made the coins back in
the day. I think I'm correct about that in terms
of the impact of coinage, but yes, that is typically
what happens is you're debasing on a face value level
the substance under which your currency is based. Michigan Tim
(26:20):
He says he's got a coin operated laundromat. Imagine the
amount of coins he's collecting on a daily basis. Gigi,
I own a coin operated laundromat.
Speaker 7 (26:29):
I sure hope they don't get.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Rid of quarters. Well, look, they're not going to get
rid of them. The question is, and this topic came
up because they are finishing the production of pennies, so
pennies will continue to circulate. There just won't be new
ones coming into the overall coin release. And the reality
(26:54):
is most people are still going to keep losing pennies
in their couch cushions and eventually they will all vanish.
But that's where they will th
Play Travis with the Clay and Buck Show, wishing you
and your family of very merry Christmas and a happy
New Year.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Buck Sexton Here the entire Clay and Bucks Show wish
you and your family a warm Christmas season and a
joyful New Year. Sunday Hang is brought to you by
Chalk Natural Supplements for guys, gals, and nothing in between.
Fuel your day at Chalk dot Com, bold reverence, and
occasionally random.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
The Sunday Hang with Clay and Buck Podcast. It starts now.
I just put up a pole question Buck that we
can have some fun with this too. Today, the last
pennies are being produced, that is, the one cent coin
is basically being phased out. Trump came in and said
the penny doesn't make sense. It costs more than to
(00:50):
than to produce it. Should we eliminate all coins? This
may be stepping into this. May it like when I
went after flute players. I'm a hard Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I saw on this one producer Greg, I'm gonna get
We're gonna give you a minute. I don't know if
he's by the mic at in NYC, or if he
wants to just do a talkback or whatever. He seems
like he's not down for and I want to know,
why would anyone want there to still be pennies.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
We need to have currency for every person. Because you
eliminate the penny, you eliminate the nickel. That's it's the
first step on the slippery slope to getting rid of
all currency, and then everything can be tracked by the government.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
All the time.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Okay, well, I'm with I'm with you on the digital
dollar thing, Producer Greg, so that you're I'm with you
on that, But pennies.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
When was the last time you used a penny? You'd
be surprised how much jangling coins does Producer Greg have
in his pocket right now, just jangling around, weighing down
his pants, dragging him down. I'm with you, Buck, I
think we should eliminate all coins. I don't think there
should be coin currency anymore.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
That he's gonna be a scorching hot take that we
didn't expect to be scorching.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Maybe we may get fired up and get attacked on
this one, but we're right. We may have stepped into
a coin loving buzzsaw here, Buck.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
It is.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
The comments are going to be very, very funny. I
think on this the poll you can go vote in it.
Thousands of you are already weighing in, and the general
consensus is it's close to fifty to fifty on whether
we should be eliminating all coins. The reason why I
brought that up was because today is reportedly the last
(02:35):
day I saw this on Fox News, that they are
going to be producing the penny. It definitely costs more
to produce the penny than the penny is worth, and
so in the future, the smallest coin would now be
the nickel. And I think going forward, you're going to
see more and more arguments about, hey, do we still
(02:55):
need to continue to produce coins. There would still be
coins in circulation, probably for you know, the next hundred years.
I mean, I don't know how long it would go on.
Here's a fun stat for you, buck, what percentage of
money that exists in the world today actually physically exists?
(03:16):
What money? Fifteen? Good guess I'm told it's ten. Okay,
I was. I was in the RELs, I was in
the row. But yeah, I think that will blow a
lot of your minds out there. In other words, if
you went to the bank and you have X dollars,
and everybody went to the bank and they have X dollars.
I mean this is sort of a bank run. The
(03:38):
physical notes that represent the vast majority of the wealth
in the world, it doesn't exist. It's just numbers on
a computer screen. Only about ten percent of the dollars
in America, of the euros in America, of all of
the different currencies physically exist. That's something kind of interesting.
(04:01):
And the younger you are, young people, and I sell
like an old guy every time I say that. Young people,
and I'm going to be an old guy. They don't
even carry money, I mean, like the actual physical carrying
of money. They have their iPhone, they pay with Apple Pay,
they have credit cards, they don't physically carry around cash
at all. They have Venmo, they have Zel, they have
(04:24):
all these different ways to share expenses when they're buying,
you know, going out for dinners or whatever else, concert tickets.
It's kind of wild. We're moving towards a cashlest society already,
and I think we're moving there in really rapid fashion.
Much to producer Greg Chagrin.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Well, yes, and I do agree that there are concerns
about not having the privacy and the ability to just
have currency that the government is not tracking and aware
of it at all times. But I don't know man pennies
not a fan of pennies quarters.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
I'm a little more open to you ever work retail?
Did you ever work at a place where you had
to accept cash, make change like process transactions. I've done
a lot of retail in my life.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Tell everybody Clay, Abercrombie and Fitch were they only were
they only hired good looking people. When Clay did it,
he at least loves to remind us all. My wife, too,
is very shy about it. I'm like, I'm like, so
you were hired at the Florida Abercrombie or you know,
Fitch or like the Orlando area or whatever because you
were cute, right, Like, just say it.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
She's like, no, I was a hard worker. I'm like,
right right. It was a the retail jobs that I had.
I worked at American Eagle, now famous because of the
Sydney Sweeney jeans. For years. I worked at a company
called Media Play in the book section. The idea there
was you could buy CDs, you could buy books. Some
(05:52):
of you will remember the concept big box retailer. And
then I worked at Abercrombie and Fitch, Pentagon City Mall
in Washington, d C. While I was in college. One
of the best jobs I ever had buck pretty girls
walk in. You got an immediate excuse to talk to
pretty girls. It's like, I mean, that's I'll tell you
the truth. Man.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I got caught up in the world and this was
really common in New York, the world of the unpaid
corporate internship I had, and in retrospect, I got scammed.
I think it would have been way better now. Some
some places I got like I worked at the Washington
Institute for Neary's Policy and they because they actually had
(06:33):
interns do real work, they paid you like you were paid.
It was you know, it was maybe three or four
hundred bucks a week or something at the time, but
it was like at the time living in DC with
three roommates over the summer, that was real money. But
I remember other places where I worked and I did.
I worked at the Council on Foreign Relations as an intern.
They didn't pay, and that place has a huge see
(06:56):
people like CUFAR, that's the globalist.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
And the illuminati.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yeah, I was an intern there, trust me, No one cared,
no one remembered me. They didn't pay and people were
there was someone who got an actual recommendation from I
think it was the Crown Prince of Jordan or something
for one of those internships, Clay, I mean people would
go all out for these didn't matter, these unpaid internships.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
It doesn't people. I was like, Oh, it'll transmit a
new job.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
What I'm saying is, I think your experience of actually
working in commerce and capitalism a much better play for people,
and it establishes something of an economic libido. You're like, oh,
work harder, work longer, more money. An internship where you're
not paid so you can put it on your resume,
you're actually incentivized to do as little as possible and
(07:44):
get out of there as fast as possible.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
And I think they're diminishing the number of unpaid internships
in general.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Oh no, it's there are rules against it now. There
are rules against it now because it became so exploitative.
Like I did want at CBS eving News, but I
got school credit for it, so that seemed like a fair.
But I did summer internships a number of them, starting
when I was even in high school, where I didn't
get any I didn't get paid, and I was just
basically fetching coffee and making xeroxes so I could put
(08:13):
on my resume that I this was a thing in
the nineties of those of you who are elder millennials.
Not you old gen X people. Gen X people, you
gotta worry about your creaking joints and bones. The elder millennials,
you know what I'm talking about. You we all got
scammed man, late nineties. It was like Clay, I worked
at a a at a music label for a summer
(08:34):
for a couple months, and it was a complete waste
of my time.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
This is unexpected. You worked at a music label for.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Like a month. Yeah, like an internship, total waste of time.
They're like the biggest I think it was supposed to
be all summer. I legitimly told my parents, like, I'm
gonna go play tennis and stead this is a waste
of time.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
So yeah, what was the music label? Death Row? No, no, no, no,
it wasn't.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
It was actually a music publishing company, so it was
kind of like did A and R and it was
owned publishing, right. Clay was the most boring interurn. I
don't even remember. I was like seventeen.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
It's the worst thing I ever worst way I ever
spent a summer in college. When I was at GW undergrad,
I went and worked on Capitol Hill as part of
being a student in DC, and that was actually somewhat
useful and interesting. But yeah, there's a ton of those
that don't have any impact at all. I was just
thinking nowadays, when you work retail, and a lot of
(09:28):
you out there who work in who work in restaurants
or whatever else. I don't even remember the last time
I saw someone pay in a restaurant with cash. You know,
they have all these mobile devices now where they can
come right right to your table and like take all
your money. I don't even remember. A lot of places
(09:48):
won't even take cash now. We used to. The reason
I was bringing it up buck is at the end
of the day at American Eagle, and it doesn't seem
very safe now. We would have a big bag of
cash that we would deposit into the bank, that we
would clear out the cash registers with. And I was
thinking about it the other day because if I tried
to explain that to my kids, they wouldn't even understand.
(10:10):
And it was filled with coins, and it was filled
with cash, and we had to tally it up, and
we had to take it, and we had to deposit
it at the end of the day. There's never any security.
I remember thinking, this doesn't make a lot of sense.
There's thousands and thousands of dollars, but that was what
we had to do because the physical encapsulation of money
was such a thing. And remember in Breaking Bad when
(10:31):
he starts to make real amounts of money, great television show,
and he doesn't even know what to do with all
the cash. This is one of the challenges of the
drug trade in general. It's all a cash business. It
takes a lot of space when you have actual, the
physical manifestation of all that wealth.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Somebody can tell me what the This was a famous
problem that Pablo Escobar, the world's drug kingpin back in
the eighties and nineties and really the original public enemy
number one of the US government in the pre War
on Terror terror era, he had something that they would
call spoilage clay, which was they had so they could
(11:09):
not find a place to put all the cash that
they were making by selling cocaine in the United States,
and so they would store it underground in palettes and
rats would eat it. And there were some crazy figure,
tens of millions of dollars a year. They thought they
were losing to rats eating their cash because that's how
(11:30):
much cash they were making in the illegal drug trade.
One thing that used to exist in New York. It
doesn't really anymore, but there were a number of restaurants
that were famous play for being cash only. Yeah, and
it was basically because it was like they weren't really
reporting all the money they were making.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
You know, that was the idea issue.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Yes, but the irs got way better at calculating the
you know, because they can base it off your inventory,
So what you buy, What are you buying monthly? Oh really,
you're only making that much, but you're buying this much.
So they have ways of figuring this stuff out.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Instaurants that was huge. They would avoid reporting the actual
dollars that came into the building. And now obviously you
can't do that with credit card and a lot of
you out there who get tips, it's way easier to
track your tips now in a credit card era than
it ever was when you just got cash handed to
you Sundays with Clay and buck. A lot of you
(12:28):
weighing in this is gonna be like the flutes buck,
they're coming for me. A lot of you with your
flute playing, quarters in your hand, your rolls of pennies.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
I'm just gonna say, if someone finds you in the
driveway of your nice, brand new house bludgeoned and there's
a flute and a handful of pennies next to the body,
we're all gonna know what happened.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
That's right. I'm in potential danger here. I want to
take this call because I don't even understand how it's possible.
There is a woman, Jen, She says, she is in
the southeastern United States. You said you only escaped your
husband because you were able to save pennies. Is Jin there?
Speaker 5 (13:13):
Yes, sir, Good afternoon, gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
All right, Jen, how many pennies did you save? What
did escaping your husband cost you? What did you buy?
Speaker 4 (13:25):
I bought a lawyer for one thousand dollars as a retainer,
using thirty five jar thirty five court sized glass jars
on six shelves in the back of my pantry, all
filled with pennies.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
How many years did it take you to save up
that many pennies?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (13:46):
It took me about it took me about two and
a half years.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
So were you thinking the whole time, I'm saving these
pennies so I can afford to divorce my husband. And
what did the lawyer think when his retainer fee is
paid in thirty five jugs of pennies.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
My lawyer was amazing. And what I was doing was
I was slowly collecting pennies and other change because he
was looking in my wallet after I would go grocery
shopping for my cash. And my lawyer was very amazing.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
So was this just this is like an incredible story. Yeah,
this is pretty crazy. So you hid the coins that
you were getting back as change on like grocery store
trips and whatnot, and as a result, you were able
to retain an attorney. So it's not just pennies you
were having quarters, like just all the change you could
get you were seeking.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
There was change jars. You kept change jars together and
you were able to get a lawyer.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
It was it was thirty five jars of pennies alone
with an addition of mixed all together, mixed together, so
it was thirty five pennies, thirty five jars of pennies only,
and then additional change as well. But it was over
one thousand dollars in just pennies.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
So what would have happened if the if I had
won and there were was now The reality is change
is going to be circulating for the rest of our lives.
What they're doing today is they are just stopping production
of more pennies, so they'll continue to circulate for the
rest of our lives. But what would you have done
if change didn't exist?
Speaker 5 (15:37):
I wouldn't have been able to get out still be
married probably.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Wow, Well that's quite a story, I gotta say. Have
you ever seen the Shawshank redemption?
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Patience is a virtue? Be virtuous, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I just remind thank you for calling in Clay. It
reminds me of what Andy Dufrayne, right, taking one piece
of dirt at a time and then he tunnels out.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Remember that. It's an amazing part of the story. That's
also the story of Alcatraz. If you visit Alcatraz, the
only people to ever escape from Alcatraz dug their way
out through the back of their gel cell there and
they then climbed on the pipes all the way out.
(16:23):
And we never have figured out what happened to those guys.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
By the way, speaking of pennies and coinage and bills
in circulation. I did check back on this one, and
according to Pablo Escobar's brother at the time, who was
also his accountant for the operations of the Median cartel's
importation of cocaine, and I don't believe heroin, but mostly
(16:48):
just cocaine. In the United States play, their spoilage, which
was rats eating the cash and just physical loss to
the elements of of the cash that they were storing,
was two billion.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Dollars a year. Unbelievable. I mean, just like they're.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Like, oh, a big rainstorm, the cash got wet and
the rats ates. We were losing two billion dollars a year.
That's how much cash they had.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I mean, I think the answer some of you out
there probably wondering why we only go up to one
hundred dollar bills, for those of you that are strongly
committed to cash, it's because they don't want to make
it easier for the storage of money for illicit transactions.
In other words, if we had a thousand dollar bill,
(17:36):
you can imagine how much more money could be stored illicitly.
And there's been talk about the Euro potentially replacing one
hundred dollar bill, and you know, because if you're engaged
in criminal activity, you want the largest denomination bill possible
to way, what's the most cash?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
What's the most cash you've ever seen physically present? It's
a great question. One time, ten can I oh, I saw,
I saw several million dollars in cash?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
One well, you carried back in the day at the CIA,
you guys had go bags filled with lots of cash, right,
can neither confirm nor deny.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I'm just saying I saw a lot of cash I saw.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I mean, I told you back in the day the
US meant so. I've seen the big palettes of cash
before there. But in terms of physical cash that I've
ever seen, I think it was about ten grand is
the most that I've ever seen physically present one place.
I can just tell you that.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
It's It's funny also when you see these movies and
they're like I need ten million dollars and someone shows
up with like a briefcase.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Oh no, no, no, it's gonna be.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Like Duffel bags. You're talking Duffel bags for ten million dollars.
It's gonna be a bit more than a a simple
valise or a briefcase. That's not going to get it
done for you. Just throwing that out there for ant
of you who are planning like a bond villain style,
you know bank situation. Yeah you can just to play
some of these people that are furious because the pennies
(19:04):
going away, because we're deluged in them right now. I
just think that it's a shame that they can't actually
like as part of the show, you know, throw pennies
at you to show their displeasure, because that would just
be fun.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
But yes, go ahead, let's see. Oh man, so many
different ones of these let's go. A lot of people
are saying they use coins for family fun. This is,
for instance, what Justin from Arizona KFYI double D is saying,
(19:35):
I think we.
Speaker 6 (19:36):
Should keep the coins. I'm with your producer. We have
a thing we call the family fun jar. So all
of our loose change goes into there, and when it
fills up, we cash it in and go do something
fun as a family.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
That's a cool idea. If you're regularly bringing cash into
the house, Now.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Have you ever done that where you've it is deeply satisfying.
And I did this for many years. I had I
had a change jar I was I had very little
money and I was working for the government, and I
had a change jar and I would go to one
of those like Coinstar one of those places, because also
I remember I went once to a bank and they
(20:18):
gave me the little like TUTSI roll things to wrap
them up in, and I did the math on this
in my head. I'm like, this is I'm paying myself
like three dollars an hour in terms of just co
was not good. So yeah, Coinstar one of those things.
But I've definitely gone out with a buddy of mine
who used to do this too, and they like, get
like a Chinese all you can eat, you know, seventeen
(20:40):
dollars with the coins you have together, and so I'm
gonna tell you it's very satisfying, very satisfied.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
I would say probably the most common is the going
through I think tolls now tend to also accept credit cards,
but you know that feeling when you're driving and you're like, oh,
I don't have much cash and there's a toll coming up.
Everything else I don't. I don't think I've had very
I'm trying to think of the last time I had
physical possessions of coins. I don't pay cash for anything.
(21:10):
I don't. I'm trying to think, what's the last time
you paid cash for something? Do you remember? I don't.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Uh yeah, I'm trying to think, actually, uh no, oh, church,
the donation in the I actually have a like a
little cash like box that every Sunday I just go
to for putting in the cash box at church.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
I think you can do.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
A check, like I see, I'm not casting dispersions here, Okay,
it's church. I see some of the older parishioners do checks, yes,
But to me, I'm like, I'd rather just give them
a you know, give them a bill. So that's the
only place that I just realized is I have cash
on hand for church and in case we get a
delivery and I have to get I also ow tips
(21:56):
for delivery guys.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
That's what it is, tip tips for tips for tips.
This is the last time that I remember giving cash.
It used to be when the boys were younger and
we had regular babysitters. Babysitters only dealt in cash. That
was like, oh, I want to get my haircut business.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
When I get my when my Cuban Americans put on
the Buena Visa Social Club, give me a tiny coffee
and give me fancy haircut.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I give those guys cash. I will also point this out.
My wife just takes money out of my wallet and
the kids do too sometimes because I'm the only person
in the house that actually has cash, so on the
rare event when we need cash. But having said that,
I don't remember the last time I got coined, like
(22:40):
I do not have physically in my possession right now.
I don't think I have any coins.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
You're like a time warp man. You're sitting there with
your actual newspaper made of paper, with your dollar bills
and your kids coming over borrowing twenties from you. This
is like nineteen ninety eight over in the Travis household.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Well, why would you want to leave behind the greatest
year that has ever existed in the history of the world.
I'd like to go back to nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
The late nineties were a great time in America.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
I will agree with that. I can't. I cannot tell
a lie. It's very important. Clay Travis with the Clay
and Buck Show, wishing you and your family a very
merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Sunday Sizzle with
Clay and Fuck clay ll.
Speaker 7 (23:28):
I think this whole conversation about Clay not carrying cash
is his justification for not paying his sports bets to
Sean Hannity.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Clay Hannity money, I've lost that money.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
I've lost every bet to Hannity, and he's been talking
about it lately. And I saw him in person on Thursday,
and I was just like, man, I didn't get a chance.
I haven't been to the ATM.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
So you know, Sean wallattft left your wallet and your
other suit, Jack, is that where we are?
Speaker 1 (24:01):
I had the TuS on, I had the tucks on
at the Patriot Wards. I'm not usually having the wallet
in the tuxpants and so it's just tough timing for me.
And uh yeah, that is uh that is very very funny.
A lot of great reactions, by the way, pouring in
on many different topics out there, including all of you
people who love change pocket change, all of you men
(24:24):
out there with ten pounds of pocket change and one
of your pockets pulling down your pants. That's why you
have to wear a belt buckle, because the change is
just overloading your your pants otherwise dragging you down. And
let's see, I want to catch up with all of these.
You know, I will say I was reading an article
(24:48):
the original silver buck in the in the coins I
believe stopped around nineteen sixty, and so an average quarter
and half dollar I think is now worth if it's
pre nineteen sixty, because we've seen precious metals prices go
up to such an extent. I think if you find
(25:08):
a half dollar or a quarter that is full silver,
they're now actually worth over three dollars each. And I
don't want you to look to me to be your
precious metals expert, so you can do your own research.
But they stopped making one hundred percent silver coins. I
believe it was sometime around nineteen sixty, and if you
find them from before, they're actually worth way more than
(25:32):
the face value of the coin. To try to win
back coin officionados out there.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Well, you know, in ancient Rome they did this. They
had initially in their coinage. Early Roman coins had silver.
They were silver, they were made of silver and almost entirely.
And then over time they started the debasement of their
own coinage by putting less and less silver in the coins.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Didn't That also can tribute to insane rates of lead
poisoning the way that they made the coins back in
the day. I think I'm correct about that in terms
of the impact of coinage, but yes, that is typically
what happens is you're debasing on a face value level
the substance under which your currency is based. Michigan Tim
(26:20):
He says he's got a coin operated laundromat. Imagine the
amount of coins he's collecting on a daily basis. Gigi,
I own a coin operated laundromat.
Speaker 7 (26:29):
I sure hope they don't get.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Rid of quarters. Well, look, they're not going to get
rid of them. The question is, and this topic came
up because they are finishing the production of pennies, so
pennies will continue to circulate. There just won't be new
ones coming into the overall coin release. And the reality
(26:54):
is most people are still going to keep losing pennies
in their couch cushions and eventually they will all vanish.
But that's where they will th
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The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.