When the Canadian Royal Mint decreed last February they would stop striking cents and the coins would be redeemed at face value until at least the end of the year, it set off a tempest of activity.

The Minister of Finance suggested donating the orphaned coins to charities. Many got into the act. I found a dozen articles on the internet for causes from clean water to Special Olympics for the donated coins.

The Canadian Mint issued one-cent bullion medals in five and ten-ounce silver celebrating the End of the Cent. With and without a colorized maple leaf.

A Nova Scotia folksinger wrote a song "No More Pennies" and used an illustration of the cent on the record cover. The lawyers at the mint woke up and informed the artist they wanted a royalty for using that image (later rescinded).

It's all part of the fun. But no one yet has come up with the best idea: melt the cents and use the metal --it's excellent bronze -- to make a statue or a bell.

Any organization in Canada need a statue or a bell? Quick, start a campaign for donations of all those loose cents. But don't turn them in for cash. Send them to a foundry. But not in America. It's illegal to melt cents here.

Question. If we demonetized American cents -- an inevitable action -- can we send our cents to a Canadian foundry to be melted and cast into a statue or bell?

Here are some of the latest fun things Canadians are doing with their discarded cents:

Free The Children Penny Drive: Organization Launches Penny Drive For Clean Water(www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/09/28/free-the-children-penny-drive_n_1924312.html)

Kroffat collects plenty of pennies for Play(slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2012/09/27/20237536.html)

Use your pennies for a good cause before they disappear(www.theglobeandmail.com/life/giving/use-your-pennies-for-a-good
-cause-before-they-disappear/article4564249/)

Decas Elementary collects pounds of pennies for Special Olympics(wareham-ma.villagesoup.com/news/story/decas-elementary
-collects-pounds-of-pennies-for-special-olympics/896331)

Nova Scotia folksinger song "No More Pennies": A penny saved is a penny earned for N.S. folksinger(www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/music/
a-penny-saved-is-a-penny-earned-for-ns-folksinger-169741256.html)