The penny, the iconic copper American coin, dies at 232
By: Marc Ramirez (USA TODAY)
So, what will it take to bring the penny back? Democrats won't do anything to defend America. And Republicans don't give a shit about America.
We're just the United States now, America is dead. Our currency is worthless. We can't feed ourselves. We can't clothe ourselves. We can't afford a house. We can't even live on the street without public assistance. Healthcare is a nostalgic memory. Education has become a joke. We're driving 20 year old vehicles because new ones cost too much. Most people are one paycheck from disaster because saving pennies doesn't accomplish anything.
A country that cannot afford to mint its own currency does not have a healthy economy. There isn't an engine of growth and prosperity in such an economy. The only thing left is inflation. The American canary in the coal mine just died.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The penny, the United States' iconic one-cent coin whose copper face and everyman symbolism endeared it to millions of Americans before it fell into change-drawer obscurity, died on Nov. 12, 2025. It was 232 years old.
In its heyday it was ubiquitous, an American avatar of grit, humility and thrift. Jauntily jingling in pockets and purses, it proudly rubbed shoulders with its currency contemporaries, springing for gumballs or the occasional grocery item.
But in the end, plagued by doubts about self-worth, it would finally fade from the spotlight, like a screen star of decades past whose phone had stopped ringing long ago.
Decades of inflation had taken their toll on the humble coin. It took its final breath in Philadelphia, where it had been born in 1793, a year after its authorization by the newly established U.S. Mint: On Wednesday afternoon, the mint there formally stamped what it said would be the country's last circulating pennies in a ceremony celebrating an icon as emblematic of the national ethos as lunch pails, piggy banks and the American Dream.
"The penny is an iconic American coin," said Gabriel Mathy, a professor of economics at American University. "It's the end of an era."
In its prime, the penny wielded outsize influence: Tossed into fountains, it could answer unrealized wishes. A penny saved was a penny earned; it was pinched, pressed into loafers and placed on graves as a way of honoring the dead. Offered for one's thoughts, it could elicit two cents, doubling its return.
Caroline Turco, assistant curator of the American Numismatic Association's Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said that whenever she spies a penny on the street, she still thinks of the rhyme, "Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck."
So mighty was the penny's sway that legions of sales pitches would rely on marketing psychology built upon its mere absence. Why shell out 10 dollars when you can pay $9.99?
The penny had remade itself multiple times over the years, succeeding a one-cent predecessor authorized by the Continental Congress in 1787 and designed by Benjamin Franklin until the mint's creation in 1792. Made of pure copper, it featured a woman with flowing hair, symbolizing liberty.
Its name reflected the country's colonial roots, a derivation of the British word "pence," which the American founding fathers disposed of along with the English monarchy.
In 1857, the penny assumed a more modest size, incorporating 12% nickel and a flying eagle design on its face; two years later, that design would be replaced by the image of liberty wearing an eagle-feathered headdress.
The face of the penny as we know it today, featuring the head of Abraham Lincoln, was first minted in 1909. A pair of wheat sheaves originally graced its tails side before being changed to depict the Lincoln Memorial 50 years later.
But even to those beyond its close quarters, it was becoming obvious that things for the penny had changed. Its spending power diminished; it could barely afford a stick of bubble gum, making it as destitute as the Great Depression panhandlers who searched for it on lamp-lit street corners.
Eventually, hints of its demise began to show. By 1982, the penny's once-copper character had given way to cheaper zinc as metal prices climbed and its popularity with the public began to wane. In 1990, politicians began to suggest that perhaps the penny's time was, in a word, spent; it was simply too costly to make.
In other words, it wasn't even worth itself.
"Rising metal prices doomed the penny," Mathy said. "This meant it would eventually be phased out."
Before long, some reported spotting the penny wallowing in dark corners of desk drawers and glove compartments, relegated to canning jars or coffee containers or discarded for the taking on convenience store counters. Unused, unwanted, hiding under sofa cushions: This had become the penny's sad existence.
Even as the penny underwent a final redesign in 2010, its tails side replaced with the Union Shield, the whole affair had the sentimental sheen of a farewell tour. Ultimately, the inflationary trends that had long nagged at the penny's wellbeing became too weighty to bear.
The U.S. Mint's fiscal year 2024 report said the one-cent coin cost 3.7 cents to produce, a 20% jump from the year before. Beyond that, Americans now use less cash overall, favoring digital payments and credit cards.
The penny, the U.S. Treasury recently declared, "is no longer necessary to meet the needs of the United States."
In February 2025, President Donald Trump ordered the department to terminate production of the penny, and in May the mint ordered its final set of penny blanks. With Wednesday's proceedings, the penny joined the expired ranks of former U.S. denominations such as the half-cent (d. 1857) and the three-cent trime (1873).
Turco, of the numismatic association's museum, said the penny should be remembered "as a staple of our economy that no longer really functions in the economy. That doesn't mean it wasn't an important piece. It's been incredibly impactful in our culture."
The penny is survived by the nickel, the dime and the quarter.
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This is not progress, folks. The United States being unable to afford minting its own currency is not a sign of strength, power, or prosperity. This isn't smart, thrifty, or good business. Removing the penny from circulation is a surrender. This is giving Afghanistan back to the Taliban. This is the last chinook out of Saigon. America has lost.
The United States may continue as lines on a map but America is dead. The only people who would cheer the loss of the penny are those who sell-out the United States and trash the idea of America for chump change. An American would not do something like this.
Arvo Norm...what do you actually use a 1 cent/penny coin for?
We got rid of 1 and 2 cent coins ages ago in 1992.. couldn't even put them in parking meters...
It was good to get rid of useless coins out of the purse to be honest..
It makes excellent Economic sense when it costs you 3.70 cents to mint the coin...
Give it 12 months and you mob won't even notice it has gone...
We use the 1 cent coin to engage in commerce and conduct transactions. That is how currency is used in a market economy.
God Save the King. Now that your government tells you how to conduct transactions, does your government tell you what to buy?
US currency is the world reserve currency. Donald Trump just manipulated your economy as well as the economy of the US.
Yep, we've heard all along that shrinking the government makes economic sense. Just look at all the money we would save by eliminating government. But the people making those claims are crackpots who would sell their mother's testicles to anyone stupid enough to buy them.
No doubt. But that says more about how little people care about the United States than about the intelligence of liars, cheaters, and thieves running our government.
I'm curious, why does this particular retirement represent the end of America? Why is it so much more serious than retiring the half penny in 1857? Or the two cent in 1873? The three cent in 1879?
Is there some sort of cosmic tipping point or something? Is there some arcane prophecy that foretells of eternal doom after the demise of the 10th denomination?
How does this work, exactly?
Donald Trump just reached down into the market economy and ordered you to conduct transactions according to his preferences. This is NOT your choice.
In the 19th century we didn't have a Federal Reserve manipulating our currency. That was the responsibility of Congress. Congress delegated it's Constitutional authority to avoid the responsibility.
How much government interference in the marketplace is acceptable? Should Trump do away with all currency and force people to conduct transactions electronically? How much are your principles worth?
Why can't pennies be minted from cheaper materials? Obviously the zinc/copper bimetal blanks would be expensive to produce because of all the steps necessary in production. Some idiot chose a complicated, expensive method to produce blanks. Steel has been used in the past so we know steel is a suitable material for blanks. And minting pennies from steel would cost less than 1 cent apiece.
Trump just reached down into your business because Trump is too fucking stupid to run the government's business. So, you tell me, how much government intrusion into the marketplace is acceptable?
It's never been our choice. The US Govt has determined that since they started issuing currency. Over that history 9 other currency forms have been retired. Nine. So we've done this 9 other times without it somehow representing a threat to our liberty.
Again, that was decades ago. The Fed was founded in 1913. We left the gold standard in 1933. The law authorizing the Treasury Secretary to suspend production was passed in 1982.
You are equating elimination of the tangible cent coin with "interference in the marketplace"? The Fed has exerted massive control over the marketplace for over a century. We're talking about tens of trillions of dollars, and you're objection is literally about the pennies?
Most of the US tax code is specifically designed as active interference with the markets.
Our government currently offers a $7500 tax credit toward buying an electric vehicle, but only if it's made in a union shop. They will pay 30% of the cost of you buying a battery backup for your home, but nothing toward a natural gas generator. (All of that is Bidenomics, BTW.) You don't think that's interference?
And then there are tax credits, like the Opportunity Zone Credit, the Fuel Tax Credit, the Clean Vehicle Credit, advanced energy, work opportunity, affordable housing, ACA premiums... they go on forever.
For Trump's part, you don't see massive tariffs as "interference in the marketplace"? That's the entire point of them.
How about luxury goods taxes? Cigarette taxes? Alcohol taxes? Don't those interfere with the marketplace?
This is a drop of water in a monsoon.
No, the United States abandoned the gold standard in 1971. Richard Nixon ended the gold standard. FDR only ended the convertibility of currency to gold to prevent hoarding that would have further weakened the US economy during the Great Depression.
Donald Trump, alone, withdrew the penny from circulation which ripples through the commerce of the United States. Trump's unilateral action interferes with state regulation of commerce.
If we're only talking about pennies then what is the justification for Trump ending production of the penny? We're talking about hundreds of trillions of global commerce and asset value that rely on the US currency as the global reserve.
What the fuck does taxes have to do with minting money? What the fuck does the Constitution have to do with Trump unilaterally ending minting any currency? What the fuck does padding the cost of producing pennies with unrealistic overhead and administrative costs have to do with the value of materials?
The value of materials in a zinc/copper penny is about 0.75 cents. About 3 cents of overhead and administrative costs have been tacked on to the minting of pennies. Switching to a steel alloy blank could lower the cost of materials to below 0.5 cents apiece but that's not going to change the cost of the bureaucracy. The reason pennies cost so much to produce are the overhead and administrative charges. The whole argument that it costs too much to produce a penny is based upon a lie. The US Mint has deliberately chosen an inefficient method using inappropriate materials to produce pennies and hides that screwup with overhead and administrative costs. The penny is a case study in how stupid it is to allow vulture capitalists run government.
FDR took us off for domestic convertibility. Nixon for international. But again.... it's still a complete interference in the marketplace.
Of course he didn't. They've just stopped making new coins. They are still legal tender, and they'll still be in ever decreasing use for decades.
Because it costs nearly 3 cents to make 1 cent, 31% of Americans never use pennies and 24% use them less than once a year.
Almost none of which involves the exchange of copper 1 cent coins. Dude, it's not like they're doing away with the $0.01 incremental denomination of the dollar. They're just going to stop making the physical coin.
Your claim was "interference with the marketplace". Taxes are a far, far FAR greater interference with the marketplace than a gradual reduction in the number of coins.
Wrong is still wrong. FDR did not take the US off the gold standard. That was Nixon.
It is still wrong. Wrong is wrong. Excuses for Trump doesn't make what he has done right or ethically defensible.
The overhead and administrative costs are still going to be 3 cents whether or not pennies are produced. Trump didn't eliminate the administrative costs.
The only tax Trump has imposed are tariffs. Even the tariffs do not interfere with transactions due to lack of currency. All transactions using currency now must accommodate the government and Trump's ego. And the public doesn't get anything in return.
OK, define "off the gold standard" as you you understand the term.
Just because you don't like it doesn't make it wrong or unethical. Most other countries did this years if not decades ago.
Which are intentional, active, large scale "interference with the marketplace".
OK, let's make sure we understand what's actually happening here. The ONLY change being made is that we're not going to keep making copper coins that most people don't use anyway. There are more pennies currently in existence than we need, so we're not going to make new ones. That's it. Full stop.
If you're a person who chooses to conduct most of your transactions in cash, then this may represent an inconvenience to you.
Please understand, you have probably been at least that much inconvenience to all the people who have been forced to watch you count out pennies while behind you in the check out line.
What took so long, we did this 12 years ago. Now they need to get to work on replacing the dollar bill with a cheaper to manufacture coin
I would prefer that they work on making a dollar actually be worth a dollar.
Lol not being argumentative but technically the dollar is still worth a dollar. Now what a dollar can buy has changed
Did discontinuing the penny increase the value of you currency? Or did it just hide that the government and financial sector have been stealing your savings?
Nope it just got rid of a costly, useless (and frankly annoying) form of currency
Nothing hidden about it, nor would I call it stealing but the government and financial sector has been taking money from our savings since currency first came into existence umpteen thousands of years ago
Arvo free..we got rid of $1 note back in in 1984..replaced it with a coin...and the $2 note followed in 1988...
It was some years later for us and we call our 1 and 2 dollar coins the loonie and the toonie.
I would post pictures but I don't know how. Here's a link Canadian 101 : Getting to Know the 'Loonie' and the 'Toonie': The Colourful Currency of Canada - Collège Éducacentre 🥶
I’m no economist, so I don’t know if the penny is important for some reason. This conversation has been going for a long time, though, and I can’t say I’ve heard anyone articulate that reason. I never use hard currency anymore unless some merchant demands cash, which is rare. My wallet doesn’t even have bills in it - just cards. I’m pretty sure I will not miss the penny.
Good point, while I do have some bills in my wallet they've been there untouched for near 3 years now