You probably have a jar of them. Maybe it’s an old salsa jar or a dusty ceramic bank shaped like a pig, but it’s sitting there, heavy and essentially useless. We’re talking about the copper-plated zinc nuisance that keeps our pockets jingling and our cashiers annoyed. People have been asking will pennies be discontinued for decades now, yet here we are in 2026, and the little guys are still kicking. It’s weird. It’s honestly a bit of a financial mystery why a coin that costs nearly three times its face value to manufacture is still being pumped out by the millions.
Let’s look at the raw numbers from the U.S. Mint’s recent reports. In 2023, it cost about 3.07 cents to make one penny. Think about that for a second. The government is literally losing money on every single unit of "currency" it creates in this denomination. It’s a net loss of tens of millions of dollars every single year. You’d think the Treasury would just pull the plug, right? But it isn't that simple.
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The Logistics of Killing the Penny
There is no "off" switch for a national currency. To understand if will pennies be discontinued, you have to look at the massive legislative hurdles involved. The U.S. Mint doesn't actually have the authority to just stop making pennies because they feel like it. That power belongs to Congress. And if there is one thing Congress is good at, it’s arguing about things that seem like common sense to everyone else.
We’ve seen attempts. Former President Barack Obama famously called the penny a "metaphor" for the government's inability to get rid of things that aren't working. Various senators, like John McCain back in the day and more recently people like Maggie Hassan, have poked at the idea of "rounding" systems. But every time the conversation starts, it hits a wall of lobbying and public sentiment.
The Zinc Lobby is Real
You might not think about "Big Zinc," but they definitely think about you. Or at least, they think about your pocket change. The Jarden Zinc Products company (now known as Artara), based in Greeneville, Tennessee, is the sole provider of the zinc blanks used to make pennies. If the penny dies, that’s a massive government contract gone. They spend significant money lobbying to keep the penny in production. They argue that getting rid of the coin would hurt the poor and lead to "rounding inflation."
Is that actually true? Probably not. Canada got rid of their penny in 2013. The sky didn't fall. People just rounded their cash transactions to the nearest five cents. If your total was $1.02, you paid a dollar. If it was $1.04, you paid $1.05. It balances out. Most of us pay with cards or phones anyway, where the exact cent still exists digitally. The "inflation" argument is mostly a scare tactic used by those with a vested interest in keeping the minting presses running.
Why the Public Still Clings to One-Cent Pieces
There’s a weird emotional attachment here. We like the history. Abraham Lincoln has been on that coin since 1909. It was the first U.S. coin to feature a historical figure rather than a personification of Liberty. It feels "American" in a way that’s hard to shake.
A lot of people also worry about charities. You’ve seen the "Take a Penny, Leave a Penny" trays or the donation jars for local schools. Charities raise millions through spare change. If the penny vanishes, does that revenue stream dry up? Research from organizations like Americans for Common Sense (who, despite the name, are often pro-penny) suggests that people are less likely to donate a nickel or a dime than they are a "worthless" penny.
The Military Already Did It
If you want to know what a penny-less world looks like, just go to a U.S. military base overseas. The Department of Defense stopped using pennies at AAFES (Army & Air Force Exchange Service) locations years ago. Why? Because shipping heavy boxes of copper and zinc across the ocean is expensive and ridiculous. They round to the nearest five cents for cash transactions. It works perfectly. No one complains. The soldiers don't feel "robbed" by the rounding. It’s just efficient.
The Economic Reality of 2026
We are currently in a weird spot. Inflation has made the penny’s purchasing power almost non-existent. In the 1950s, a penny could actually buy a piece of gum. Today, it buys literally nothing. It is a unit of account, not a medium of exchange. Most of them aren't even circulating; they are sitting in jars or in the cracks of car seats. The "coin shortage" during the COVID-19 era wasn't actually a shortage of coins—it was a shortage of circulation. We have plenty of pennies; we just refuse to use them because they are a hassle.
What Happens if We Actually Stop?
If will pennies be discontinued finally becomes a "yes," here is the play-by-play:
- The Rounding Rule: Cash transactions would be rounded to the nearest $0.05. Digital payments (credit, debit, Apple Pay) would remain exactly the same.
- The "Slow Fade": The Mint would stop producing new ones, but the old ones would remain legal tender. You could still spend them, but banks would eventually pull them from circulation and send them back to be melted down.
- Metal Reclamation: The government would likely make a killing by melting down the existing stock. Zinc and copper have industrial value. Turning a billion "useless" pennies into industrial raw materials is a net win for the Treasury.
The Surprising Resistance from the "Penny Smart"
There is a small but vocal group of people who believe that the penny is a hedge against price gouging. The idea is that if we lose the penny, every corporation will automatically round up, never down. But if you look at the "Penny Study" by Robert Whaples, an economics professor at Wake Forest University, he found that rounding is essentially neutral. Over thousands of transactions, the consumer and the merchant end up basically even.
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It's the psychological barrier that's the toughest. We've been told "a penny saved is a penny earned" since we were in kindergarten. It’s hard to tell an entire nation that the "earned" penny is now a drain on the economy.
Real Examples of the Penny's Decline
Look at other countries. It’s not just Canada. Australia, New Zealand, the UK (with their half-penny), and various EU nations have all ditched their smallest denominations. In every single case, the transition was boring. It wasn't a revolution. It was just a minor adjustment to how we look at a receipt.
In the U.S., the most recent push came from the "Coinage Reform Act," which pops up in different iterations every few years. The main argument used to be the cost of the metal. Now, the argument is the cost of time. Think about how much time is wasted at cash registers while people dig for two cents to avoid getting ninety-eight cents back in change. Economists estimate this "time tax" costs hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity annually.
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Moving Forward Without the Cent
So, will pennies be discontinued in the next twelve months? Probably not. The political will isn't quite there yet, and the lobby for the status quo is surprisingly strong. However, the economic pressure is reaching a breaking point. When it costs 4 cents to make 1 cent, the math eventually forces your hand.
Actionable Steps for Your "Copper" Pile
- Cash them in now: Don't wait for a formal discontinuation. Coinstar machines or your local credit union are the way to go. If you have a massive amount, some banks will give you the sleeves for free.
- Check for "Key Dates": Before you dump the jar, look for 1943 steel pennies (they stick to a magnet) or any pennies from before 1982. Pre-1982 pennies are 95% copper and are actually worth about 2.5 cents just in metal value.
- Donate to "Micro-Charities": Many local schools still run "Penny Wars" fundraisers. This is the most efficient way to get rid of them while actually doing some good.
- Watch the Legislation: Keep an eye on the House Financial Services Committee. That is where any real move to kill the penny will begin. If a "Coinage Reform" bill gains co-sponsors, that’s your signal that the end is near.
The penny has had a good run—over 200 years. But in a digital-first world where a single cent can't even buy a minute of parking at a meter, its days are inevitably numbered. It’s not a matter of "if," but "when." For now, it remains a shiny, copper-plated ghost in our machines.