Farewell to the Penny: America’s 238-Year-Old Coin Reaches Its End

After more than two centuries of circulation, the American penny has officially been retired. The U.S. Mint in Philadelphia produced the final batch on Wednesday afternoon, marking the end of the nation’s oldest coin after 238 years.

U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach oversaw the last minting. The decision followed an announcement by President Donald Trump earlier this year, when he instructed the Mint to halt penny production due to the high cost of manufacturing the coin. It currently costs nearly four cents to produce each one-cent piece.

Once a symbol of affordability, buying "penny candy," feeding meters, or paying tolls, the penny’s practical use has long faded. Most now sit in coin jars, drawers, or "take a penny, leave a penny" trays at stores.

Beach said the final coins pressed will be auctioned off, and that the last pennies intended for circulation were actually minted back in June.

The penny outlived its smaller sibling, the half-cent, by 168 years. It remains survived by the nickel, dime, quarter, and the seldom-used half-dollar and dollar coins. Although no longer produced, existing pennies will remain legal tender.

Challenges Follow the Penny’s Retirement

Ending production has not been as simple as expected. Retailers across the country are already encountering challenges with transactions and change.

Some businesses are rounding totals to the nearest nickel, occasionally leaving customers paying a cent or two more. Others are encouraging customers to pay with pennies to stretch limited supplies. In certain states, though, merchants can face legal trouble for rounding up or down at all.

Even the expected savings may be smaller than hoped. Because nickels cost more to mint than pennies, increased nickel production could offset any benefit.

Mark Weller, executive director of the advocacy group Americans for Common Cents, described the transition as "a bit chaotic." Funded largely by Artazn, the company that provides the metal blanks for pennies, his group warned that retailers will likely feel the impact more sharply by the holidays.

According to Weller, other nations like Canada, Australia, and Switzerland created transition plans before removing small coins from circulation. The United States, he noted, did not.
"We got a social media post during the Super Bowl, but no real plan for what retailers would have to do," he said, referring to Trump’s February announcement.

Rounding Policies and Legal Concerns

The Midwestern convenience store chain Kwik Trip has opted to round down on cash purchases in areas where pennies are no longer available.
"We didn’t think it was fair to charge customers an extra two cents," said company spokesperson John McHugh. "It’s not their fault there’s a penny shortage."

But that choice comes at a cost. With roughly 20 million annual customers, and 17 percent paying in cash, the policy could reduce Kwik Trip’s revenue by a few million dollars each year.

Nationally, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond estimates that rounding purchases to the nearest nickel could cost American consumers about $6 million annually, roughly five cents per household.

And rounding is not legal everywhere. States like Delaware, Connecticut, Michigan, and Oregon, along with cities such as New York, Miami, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C., require exact change.

The issue also complicates food assistance programs such as SNAP, which legally must charge recipients the exact amount due. According to Jeff Lenard of the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), that means retailers who round down for cash customers could unintentionally violate federal law.

"Rounding down on all transactions presents several challenges beyond the loss of a couple cents per sale," Lenard said. "We need Congress to pass legislation that allows fair rounding rules so stores can make change consistently."

NACS and several other retail organizations have since sent letters to Congress asking for a clear policy framework addressing these new complications.

The Penny’s Long Legacy

The penny was first introduced in 1787, six years before the U.S. Mint was formally established. Benjamin Franklin is widely believed to have designed the first version, the Fugio cent, and the Lincoln penny that Americans know today debuted in 1909 to mark Abraham Lincoln’s 100th birthday. It became the first U.S. coin to feature a president.

Although there are roughly 300 billion pennies still in circulation, worth about nine dollars per person, most are rarely used. The Treasury Department estimates that the majority sit idle, making their economic value minimal. As a result, public reaction to the coin’s end has been relatively quiet.

Joe Ditler, a 74-year-old writer and historian from Colorado, still treasures a cigar box of old pennies given to him by his grandfather. He remembers flattening pennies on railroad tracks or in souvenir machines as a child, though today he seldom uses them for purchases.
"They bring back memories that have stayed with me all my life," he said. "The penny has had a wonderful life. But it’s probably time for it to go away."

Information from KEZI and CNN