FOR THE WEEK OF DEC. 01, 2025

Say goodbye to new pennies, a coin that outlived its purpose after 232 years

We all have pennies and rarely use them, right? Plus, they cost the U.S. Mint more than three cents each to make, and most wind up stored indefinitely in jars, pails, piggy banks, Big Gulp cups and drawers or forgotten in sofa cushions, vehicle consoles, pockets of rarely worn pants or other black holes. So the government finally decided to stop creating the copper-color coins that have been around since 1793, just 17 years after the 13 U.S. colonies declared independence from Britain. The long tradition no longer makes sense . . . or cents (sorry/not sorry).

In the 2024 budget year, the government made 3.2 billion one-cent coins with President Abraham Lincoln's profile on the front, a design used since 1909. (Pennies were made from copper until 1982, when the government switched to zinc and copper.) The last pennies were pressed this month in Philadelphia. "The Mint expects to save approximately $56 million per year in production savings," its website says. Pennies made earlier still can be used, though many shops may start rounding cash transactions to the nearest nickel.

Shiny new one-cent pieces stamped 2025 are "being collected wildly right now," says Charmy Harker, a coin dealer and collector in Irvine, Calif. "People want to get the last year of the penny, as many as they can." The last U.S. coin to be discontinued because of its low value was the half-penny in 1857. The next, eventually, may be the nickel – which costs nearly 14 cents to make. (The smaller dime costs less than six cents to produce and the quarter almost 15 cents.)

U.S. Mint says: "The Secretary of the Treasury has decided to suspend production of the one-cent coin upon determining that it is no longer necessary to meet the needs of the United States. The decision was influenced by the rising cost of producing the penny."

Merchant says: "I think rounding down is the right thing to do. I don't believe in charging my customers more, even if it's only two or three pennies. The loss isn't that much." -- Kevin Dion, Dairy Queen general manager in Manchester, N.H.

Journalist writes: "The U.S. Mint estimates that there are 300 billion pennies in circulation—which, if true, means that the Milky Way galaxy contains about three times more American pennies than stars." – Caity Weaver, staff writer at The Atlantic magazine

Front Page Talking Points Archive

Common Core State Standard
SL.CCS.1/2/3/4 Grades 6-12: An essay of a current news event is provided for discussion to encourage participation, but also inspire the use of evidence to support logical claims using the main ideas of the article. Students must analyze background information provided about a current event within the news, draw out the main ideas and key details, and review different opinions on the issue. Then, students should present their own claims using facts and analysis for support.