1991 – 1997retired
Apple OneScanner
“Eight bits of grey, one big button, and patience. Rest easy, old scanner.”
“Worth less than it cost, worth more than we knew”
It was the littlest worker in the wallet: the lowest-denomination coin, passed hand to hand without a second thought. People loved it the way you love things you never notice — in cash drawers, coin jars, and the bottom of every handbag. It did its humble job for decades until the math quietly turned against it.
In 1997 it was withdrawn from circulation, either by an official decision to remove it or simply by ceasing to mint new ones. Its passing came not from scandal but from inflation and rising production costs: seigniorage had soured, and it cost as much to make as it was worth. It leaves behind a smoothly rounded economy, and the faint nostalgia of exact change.
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“Eight bits of grey, one big button, and patience. Rest easy, old scanner.”
“A Mac at heart, trying its best to be a game console.”
“0.3 megapixels of pure nerve — the camera that convinced everyone digital was worth it.”