Honestly, the penny has been on life support for decades. It’s that one coin you find at the bottom of your cup holder, covered in sticky mystery residue, or the thing you awkwardly fumble with while a line of five people stares at the back of your head at the grocery store. Most of us just toss them in a jar and forget they exist. But recently, the debate moved from "should we?" to "we are," and it's mostly thanks to a push from the top.
In early 2025, President Donald Trump made it official. He directed the Treasury Department to stop producing new pennies, and honestly, the math makes it hard to argue with. By the time 2026 rolled around, the U.S. Mint was already winding down its final runs of the copper-plated zinc discs.
It's a weird moment for American history. The penny has been around since 1787. It’s got Lincoln on it. It’s iconic. But it’s also, quite literally, a money pit.
The Brutal Math of a One-Cent Coin
The biggest reason behind the move is pretty simple: it’s a bad business deal. In 2024, it cost the U.S. Mint about 3.69 cents just to make one single penny. Think about that for a second. The government was basically buying a product for nearly four cents and then selling it for one cent.
If a private company did that, they’d be bankrupt in a week. But because it’s the government, we just kept doing it for years. The total loss to taxpayers in 2024 alone was over $85 million. When you look at the 2025-2026 fiscal cycle, those numbers only got uglier as the price of zinc and copper fluctuated.
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Trump, leaning on input from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—that's the Elon Musk-led task force—called the whole thing "wasteful." He posted on Truth Social that we should "rip the waste out" of the budget, even if it’s just a penny at a time. It’s a catchy line, but it’s actually rooted in a very real deficit problem.
Why now and not ten years ago?
People have been trying to kill the penny for ages. Obama talked about it. John McCain wanted it gone. But there’s always been this weird emotional attachment to it. Plus, the zinc lobby—yes, that’s a real thing—is surprisingly strong. Most pennies today are actually 97.5% zinc with just a thin skin of copper.
The turning point was basically a "perfect storm" of three things:
- Inflation: A penny doesn't buy anything anymore. Not even a piece of gum.
- The Coin Shortage Legacy: During the pandemic, we realized we could survive without constant coin circulation.
- Digital Payments: Most of us use Apple Pay, Venmo, or credit cards now. The physical need for a "unit of one" is mostly gone.
What Actually Happens to Your Change?
There is a huge misconception that pennies are now "illegal" or that you have to go to the bank and turn them in immediately. That’s not how this works. The penny is still legal tender. If you have a jar of 5,000 pennies in your closet, they are still worth $50. You can still spend them at the store, assuming the cashier is patient enough to count them.
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The real change is in how businesses handle cash transactions. Since the Mint stopped shipping new pennies in early 2026, the supply is slowly drying up. Here is how the "rounding" thing basically works in the real world:
- Credit/Debit/Digital: Nothing changes. If your total is $10.02, you pay $10.02.
- Cash Transactions: Stores are starting to adopt the "Canada Model." If your total ends in .01 or .02, it rounds down to the nearest nickel (.00). If it ends in .03 or .04, it rounds up to .05.
Kinda feels like you’re getting ripped off when it rounds up, right? But the Richmond Fed actually did a study on this and found that over time, it basically balances out to zero. You win some, you lose some. On average, it costs the average consumer maybe a few dollars a year at most.
The Unintended Consequences
Not everyone is happy, though. Charities are a big one. Think about those "Penny Drives" for schools or the little jars at the McDonald’s drive-thru for the Ronald McDonald House. When people stop carrying pennies, those micro-donations disappear.
Then there’s the "unbanked" population. About 4.5% of U.S. households don't have bank accounts. They rely entirely on cash. For someone living on a very tight budget, those rounded-up cents can actually add up over a month. It's a small group of people, but they're the ones most affected by the Trump stop minting pennies order.
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What about the Nickel?
Here’s the funny part. Now that the penny is gone, the nickel is the new "smallest coin." But guess what? A nickel costs about 14 cents to make. So, we’ve solved the penny problem only to highlight that the nickel is an even bigger loser for the Treasury. There’s already talk in the 119th Congress about the "Common Cents Act" to address the nickel next, but one thing at a time.
Practical Steps for the Post-Penny World
If you're wondering what to do with the copper-colored clutter in your life, here’s the best way to handle the transition:
- Dump the Jar Now: Take your pennies to a Coinstar or your local credit union while they still have the machines calibrated for them. Some banks are already starting to phase out coin-counting services because it's not worth the maintenance.
- Watch the Register: If you pay in cash, keep an eye on the rounding. Most major retailers like Walmart or Kroger have updated their software to do this automatically, but smaller "mom and pop" shops might still be doing it manually.
- Check for Rarities: Before you dump them, look for "Wheaties" (pennies from before 1958) or anything with a weird mint mark. Collectors are expected to get more aggressive now that the coin is "extinct."
- Embrace the Digital: If the rounding bothers you, just stick to your card. That way, you’re always paying the exact price down to the cent.
The era of the penny is basically over. It’s a bit nostalgic, sure, but in an era where we're looking for government efficiency, it's hard to justify spending four cents to make one. We’re moving toward a leaner currency system, and while it might take a few years for the last penny to disappear from your couch cushions, the production lines have officially gone silent.