You’ve probably got a jar of them sitting on your dresser. Or maybe they’re buried in the dark abyss of your car’s center console, sticky with spilled soda and completely forgotten. We’re talking about the humble one-cent piece. For years, rumors have swirled about pennies no longer being made, and honestly, depending on where you live, that’s either an old headline or a looming financial decision.
If you're in Canada, the penny is a ghost. It's been over a decade since the Royal Canadian Mint stopped shipping them to financial institutions. But in the United States? The situation is weirder. The U.S. Mint is still cranking them out by the billions, even though every single one they make costs about three cents to produce. It’s a literal money-loser.
The strange math of the American penny
It costs more to make the coin than the coin is actually worth. Think about that for a second. In 2023, the U.S. Mint reported that the unit cost for a penny was roughly 3.07 cents. We are effectively paying three cents to create one cent of "value." It feels like a bad joke.
Why is it so expensive? Zinc. That's the culprit. While pennies look like copper, they are actually 97.5% zinc with a thin copper plating. When the global price of zinc spikes, the taxpayer picks up the tab for the deficit.
Some people argue that pennies no longer being made would lead to "rounding taxes" where businesses sneakily round up prices to the nearest nickel, cheating consumers out of hard-earned change. But economists usually point to the "Penny Free" experience in other countries as evidence that this just doesn't happen. In Canada, they round to the nearest five cents for cash transactions only. If you pay with a card, you still pay the exact cent. It's simple.
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What happened when Canada pulled the plug?
In 2012, the Canadian government decided they’d had enough. They realized they were spending $11 million a year just to distribute a coin that most people didn't even want to carry. On February 4, 2013, the transition began.
The sky didn't fall.
Businesses quickly adapted to a rounding system. If your coffee cost $1.82, you paid $1.80. If it was $1.83, you paid $1.85. Over time, it balances out to zero. Most people didn't even notice the difference after the first few months. The Royal Canadian Mint even encouraged citizens to donate their jugs of pennies to charities like Free The Children. It was a massive success that turned literal "dead weight" in people's homes into millions of dollars for social causes.
The lobby keeping the US penny alive
If the math is so bad, why is the U.S. still making them?
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It’s not just sentimentality. There is a very real, very active lobby called Americans for Common Cents. This group is largely funded by Jarden Zinc Products, the company that sells the zinc blanks to the U.S. Mint. They argue that the penny is a hedge against inflation and that losing it would hurt the poor who rely on cash.
Then there’s the charity angle. Organizations like the Ronald McDonald House rely heavily on those little donation canisters by the cash register. Most of what goes in there? Pennies. There is a legitimate fear that if we stop making the coin, those micro-donations will vanish, leaving a massive hole in charitable budgets.
Why 2026 might be a turning point
Inflation is the ultimate penny-killer. As the price of everything from eggs to gas goes up, the purchasing power of one cent gets closer and closer to zero. In the 1950s, a penny could actually buy a piece of candy. Today, it can't buy anything. It is a vestigial organ of our financial system.
We have a precedent for this. The U.S. used to have a half-cent coin. It was discontinued in 1857 because, at the time, its purchasing power had dropped too low to be useful. If you adjust for inflation, that half-cent in 1857 had more buying power than a dime does today. By that logic, we should have stopped making pennies—and maybe even nickels—decades ago.
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The environmental cost nobody talks about
Mining zinc and copper isn't exactly a green enterprise. We are digging holes in the ground, refining metal, stamping it into coins, and trucking those heavy boxes of coins across the country just so they can sit in your piggy bank and never move again. The carbon footprint of the penny is massive considering its utility.
When we talk about pennies no longer being made, we also have to consider the "opportunity cost" for the Mint. The time and machinery used to strike billions of pennies could be used for more efficient denominations or even commemorative coins that actually generate a profit for the government.
What you should do with your pennies right now
If you’re sitting on a mountain of copper-colored coins, don't just leave them there. While they are still legal tender, their value is slowly being eroded by inflation every single day.
- Check for "Wheaties": Before you dump them in a Coinstar, look for "Wheat Pennies" (minted before 1959). Some are common, but others can be worth significantly more than a cent to collectors.
- The Coinstar hack: Most people hate the 11-12% fee Coinstar charges. However, if you choose to take your payout as a digital gift card (like Amazon or Starbucks), they usually waive the fee entirely. You get 100% of your money.
- Bank rolls: Most banks will give you paper rolls for free. It’s tedious, but rolling them yourself and taking them to a teller is the only way to get the full cash value without a fee.
- Self-checkout trick: If you’re embarrassed to hand a cashier $5 in loose change, use the self-checkout at the grocery store. Most machines have a coin slot that accepts a handful of coins at a time. It's a great way to clear out your cup holder while paying for your groceries.
The transition to a penny-less society seems inevitable. It’s a matter of "when," not "if." Whether it's driven by the rising cost of metals or the total shift toward digital payments, the era of the one-cent piece is drawing to a close. We are living through the final chapters of a coin that has existed since 1793.
Actionable steps for the transition
Start by thinning out your stash now. Don't wait for a formal announcement that pennies no longer being made is official policy, as that could trigger a rush or changes in how banks accept loose change. If you own a small business, track your cash transactions to see how rounding would actually impact your bottom line; you might find that the time saved by not counting pennies is worth more than the few cents you’d lose or gain. Finally, if you're a collector, keep an eye on the "S" mint marks (San Francisco) or any coins from the early 1900s, as these will only climb in value once the coin is officially retired from circulation.