.

     'It costs more than a penny to make a penny,' Moist murmured. 'Is it just me, or is that wrong?'
     'But, you see, once you have made it, a penny keeps on being a penny,' said Mr Bent. 'That's the magic of it.'
     'It is?' said Moist. 'Look, it's a copper disc. What do you expect it to become?'
     'In the course of a year, just about everything,' said Mr Bent smoothly. 'It becomes some apples, part of a cart, a pair of shoelaces, some hay, an hour's occupancy of a theatre seat. It may even become a stamp and send a letter, Mr Lipwig. It might be spent three hundred times and yet - and this is the good part - it is still one penny, ready and willing to be spent again. It is not an apple, which will go bad. Its worth is fixed and stable. It is not consumed.'