The U.S. Mint confirmed on Thursday that the current crop of one-cent coins will be the last ever produced.
It’s been a long time coming: Two previous bills to cancel the penny had been proposed in 1990 and 2017, both by Arizona Republicans, one of them co-sponsored by the late Senator John McCain.
In February, President Donald Trump announced on social media that he had directed the Treasury to cease penny production. He did so on his social media site while watching the Super Bowl, which raised questions about his seriousness on the issue.
But this week’s announcement also came on the heels of a new bipartisan Senate bill, from Utah Republican Mike Lee and Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley, called the Make Sense Not Cents Act.
The penny is only one year younger than the U.S. Mint itself, dating back to 1793. It initially had an image of Lady Liberty, but since 1909, it has featured the profile of Abraham Lincoln. This year, the penny is on its way to be as much of a relic as the half-cent, abolished in 1857. Or the $10 and $20 coins, which were discontinued in 1933.
A Treasury official told the Associated Press that the move is anticipated to save $56 million. The cost of producing each penny increased by just over 20% in 2024, the Mint said in its annual report where “the unit cost for pennies (3.69 cents) and nickels (13.78 cents) remained above face value for the 19th consecutive fiscal year.”
The U.S. is one of the last major economies to have a centesimal coin. Canada phased out its penny in 2012; Australia and New Zealand did so in 1992 and 1990, respectively. Sweden got started back in 1972.
Don’t worry, though, there will be plenty of little Lincolns floating around for a very long time. A New York Times (NYT) article from September 2024 reported that “a conservative estimate holds that there are 240 billion pennies lying around the United States — about 724 ($7.24) for every man, woman and child there residing, and enough to hand two pennies to every bewildered human born since the dawn of man.”
And look out, nickels, don’t think you’re safe from the DOGE watchlist: each 5-cent coin costs 14 cents to produce.