It is 2026, and if you have been digging through your couch cushions lately, you might be holding onto a piece of American history that’s officially on the way out. For years, people have joked about how useless the penny is. You can’t use them in vending machines. They don’t work for parking meters. Honestly, most of us just drop them into those "take a penny, leave a penny" trays at the gas station and never look back.
But now, the joke is over.
The US Treasury has officially hit the "stop" button on the production of new pennies. If you've been asking is the us getting rid of pennies, the short answer is a resounding yes, though the coins in your jar aren't going to suddenly become illegal overnight. This isn't just a rumor anymore; it's a massive shift in how the United States handles physical currency, driven by a mix of skyrocketing metal prices and a weirdly intense political push to "rip the waste" out of the budget.
Why the penny is finally retiring in 2026
The primary reason for the penny's demise is pretty simple: it's a terrible business model.
According to the US Mint’s 2024 and 2025 reports, it now costs about 3.7 cents to manufacture a single one-cent coin. Think about that for a second. The government is basically buying a nickel's worth of metal and labor, stamping a "1" on it, and then losing 2.7 cents every single time they hand one out. In the 2024 fiscal year alone, the Mint lost over $85 million just making pennies. If any private company ran their business like that, they’d be bankrupt in a week.
President Trump made this a headline issue in early 2025, directing the Treasury to stop production. He called the process "wasteful" in several social media posts, and frankly, the numbers back him up. We've had 19 consecutive years where the penny cost more to make than it was worth.
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The Common Cents Act and the "MINT" shift
While the President's executive order got the ball rolling, Congress had to step in to make it official through the Common Cents Act (introduced as H.R. 3074 and S. 1525). This bipartisan bill didn't just kill the penny; it also tried to save its cousin, the nickel.
See, the nickel has the same problem. It costs nearly 14 cents to make a nickel. Part of the new legislation allows the Mint to change what nickels are made of—specifically adding more zinc—to try and keep that coin from meeting the same fate.
What happens to your cash at the register?
This is where things get kinda confusing for people. If there are no pennies, how do you pay for something that costs $10.02?
Basically, the US is following the "Canadian Model." Back in 2013, Canada got rid of their penny, and the world didn't end. Here’s how the new American rounding system works for cash transactions:
- Amounts ending in .01 or .02: These round down to the nearest zero. (You save two cents!)
- Amounts ending in .03 or .04: These round up to .05. (The store gets a couple extra cents.)
- Amounts ending in .06 or .07: These round down to .05.
- Amounts ending in .08 or .09: These round up to .10.
It’s important to realize this only applies to cash. If you are using a debit card, credit card, or Apple Pay, nothing changes. The transaction will still be exactly $10.02. Because most of us are using digital payments anyway—Pew Research says about 41% of Americans didn't use cash at all in a typical week even back in 2022—the Treasury thinks most people won't even notice the change.
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Will this make inflation worse?
There’s a lot of fear that businesses will use "rounding" as an excuse to hike prices. Economists call this a "rounding tax."
However, studies from the Richmond Fed and historical data from countries like Australia and New Zealand suggest the impact is almost zero. Since the rounding goes both up and down, it usually balances out over a month of shopping. You might lose three cents on a gallon of milk but save two cents on a loaf of bread.
The real driver of inflation isn't the tiny copper-plated zinc disc; it’s things like labor costs, supply chains, and interest rates. A rounding error on a Snickers bar isn't going to crash the economy.
The impact on the "Unbanked"
The biggest concern experts like those at the Baker Institute have raised is for "unbanked" individuals—people who don't have bank accounts and rely entirely on cash. About 4.5% of US households fall into this category. For them, every cent actually matters. If a grocery store rounds up a few times a day, that could add up to a few dollars a month. While that sounds small, for someone living on the edge, it’s a real cost.
Are your old pennies worth anything now?
Don't go quitting your job to become a professional penny hoarder just yet. There are currently about 114 billion pennies in circulation. That’s roughly 700 pennies for every single American. They aren't going to become "rare" for a very, very long time.
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Existing pennies remain legal tender. You can still take them to the bank. You can still use them at stores that are willing to count them. But as they get lost, damaged, or stuck in jars, the Mint won't be replacing them.
If you have pennies from before 1982, those are actually made of 95% copper. They are technically worth more than a cent in metal value, but it's actually illegal to melt them down for the metal. So for now, they're just... pennies.
Your next steps in a penny-free world
So, what should you actually do with all that copper-colored change sitting in your car's cup holder?
- Dump them now: Most banks will still take rolled pennies, and Coinstar machines are still a thing. If you want to avoid the "rounding up" at the register later this year, get rid of them while they are still common.
- Check for "Key Dates": Before you dump them, look for pennies from 1909 (specifically with the "S" and "VDB" marks) or 1943 copper errors. Most pennies are worth one cent, but those few are worth thousands.
- Watch your receipts: As retailers transition to rounding systems in late 2026, keep an eye on how they are calculating your change. Most POS (Point of Sale) systems will do this automatically, but it’s good to know the math.
- Support charities: Many nonprofits rely on "penny drives." With the coin going away, these organizations are going to feel a pinch. Consider switching to a "round up" app that donates your digital change to your favorite cause instead.
The era of the penny is ending not with a bang, but with a quiet realization that we just don't need them anymore. It’s a practical, if slightly nostalgic, move toward a more efficient way of handling money.