Front Porch Conversations: Little penny – here’s looking at you, kid

Why did we stop making the penny?

On November 12, after 232 years in production, the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia held a ceremonial strike for the last penny to ever be made in the United States. 

The reason: It now costs the federal government 3.69 cents per penny to produce each one cent coin. 

According to information from the U.S. Mint, in 2024, 3,172 million pennies were sold and shipped to the Federal Reserve for a total gross cost of $117 million.

Because the cost to make the penny far exceeds its value, President Trump announced in February on his Truth Social site that he was ordering the U.S Secretary of Treasury to stop producing the tiny copper-plated coin. 

“I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

And so, when U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent struck the final penny on Wednesday, this order came to fruition. 

Although production has ceased, a press release from the U.S. Mint states that the penny will remain legal tender.

“There are an estimated 300 billion pennies in circulation—far exceeding the amount needed for commerce. Retailers and other businesses can continue to price goods and services in one-cent increments,” the press release states. 

But, retailers have faced a penny shortage this year, probably because most of us toss our pennies into jars and drawers throughout the house to be forgotten, and that shortage will only become worse now that the penny is no longer being made. 

The result? Some restaurants, like McDonald’s, have already announced that they will round either up or down to the nearest five cents if they do not have pennies. 

This rounding method will most likely be followed by other retailers as the number of pennies in circulation declines. 

The U.S. Mint will continue to make numismatic versions of the penny in limited quantities for historical and collector purposes, just as they do for specialty coins such as the “Comic Art Coin and Medal Program.” 

Image obtained from U.S. Mint Facebook page

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