The Death of the Penny: Why America’s Smallest Coin Is Finally Getting the Axe
Once upon a time, we bent to pick up pennies.
We dropped them into candy machines, balanced them on train tracks to watch them warp, flicked them into fountains and believed they might grant wishes. But now? The U.S. Mint has decided enough is enough.
The penny is on death row.
A Copper Farewell
In May 2025, the U.S. Mint officially announced it was moving forward with plans to retire the penny…the coin worth one cent, the smallest in our monetary system, and the one that’s somehow cost more than a cent to produce for nearly two decades.
It’s not just impractical.
It’s uneconomical.
Each penny costs 2.1 cents to make, thanks to rising prices of materials and labor.
It bleeds taxpayer money for the sake of nostalgia, not utility.
So, the decision to end it wasn’t a whim. It was long overdue.
But as we say goodbye to the penny, we’re not just letting go of a coin…we’re letting go of a fragment of American identity, a symbol of thrift, of childhood memories, of pocket change jingling in denim.
And maybe something deeper, too.
The Cost of a Cent
The math is maddening.
In 2023 alone, the Mint spent over $130 million to produce pennies, more than double their face value. The irony is almost poetic: it costs more to keep the penny alive than it’s worth.
And no, this isn't new. The penny has been a fiscal burden for nearly 20 years.
Since 2006, its production cost has regularly exceeded its face value. Yet we kept making them, out of tradition, inertia, and fear of public backlash.
Retailers and consumers don’t love the idea of rounding, but we already do it in practice. How many of us actually dig through our wallets for three cents at checkout?
Cash transactions account for less than 20% of purchases, and even when we use them, most pennies end up in drawers, jars, and car cup holders, never to see a register again.
At the restaurant I work at we don’t even take change from people anymore, just round to the nearest dollar.
The Psychology of Small Change
So why do we cling?
There’s something deeply human about small denominations. They're tactile. They make money feel real.
You can hold a penny. You can throw one into a magical fountain. You can give one to a kid and watch their eyes light up like they’ve just inherited the universe.
Pennies are the first coins we earn, the ones we find heads-up on sidewalks and call lucky. They’re more than money…they're rituals, memories, and symbols of a time when a cent had weight in the world.
But that time is fading.
A History Stamped in Copper
The penny has been with us since 1793, when it was first struck in pure copper. Over the centuries, it’s changed designs, materials, and purpose, but never its stubborn presence in our pockets.
Abraham Lincoln made his debut on the penny in 1909, the first historical figure to grace a U.S. coin. That made the penny more than currency…it became a tribute.
A way to keep history close at hand.
During World War II, when copper was needed for ammunition, the Mint even produced steel pennies for a single year…1943.
These silvery oddities now shimmer in collectors’ cases like war medals for a coin that’s seen it all.
But sentiment, like coinage, absolutely has a lifespan.
And Lincoln, noble as he is, doesn’t hold enough purchasing power anymore to warrant mass minting.
What Can a Penny Buy Now?
Nothing.
Not a gumball. Not a piece of candy. Not a phone call, a wish, or a sliver of gas.
A penny today is worth about one-third of what it was in 1980. Inflation has eroded its buying power into dust.
In a world where loaf of bread costs $3 and parking meters start at $2, the penny is a ghost.
A memory of an economy that doesn’t exist anymore.
And yet…we still find them, abandoned in gutters and crosswalks, like fallen soldiers of a forgotten war.
What Other Countries Have Done
We’re not the first to say goodbye.
Canada eliminated its penny in 2013. The sky didn’t fall. Businesses round to the nearest five cents, and the public barely blinked.
Australia and New Zealand removed theirs decades ago.
Sweden, Brazil, Finland, and many more have said their goodbyes without regret.
The economic logic is simple. Small coins cost more to produce than they contribute to commerce.
They slow down transactions, waste metal, and create storage issues for businesses and banks alike.
Even the vending machine gave up on them.
So Why Keep the Penny?
The same reason we keep greeting cards we don’t reread. Or hold onto keys that no longer open doors.
The penny feels American. Like drive-ins, diners, and baseball. Like grit and elbow grease. A symbol of frugality and fairness.
Some argue that rounding up disproportionately affects the poor. That we shouldn’t remove the smallest denomination while wealth gaps widen. And that’s not an empty point.
But penny hoarding does not equal penny justice.
A better solution would be electronic subsidy systems or digital vouchers, not clinging to a coin that costs more than it’s worth.
The Rise of a Cashless Society
In truth, we’re already halfway to a cashless world.
Most people under 40 rarely use coins.
Contactless payments, Apple Pay, Venmo, crypto…all reducing the need for physical currency.
Even parking meters, toll booths, laundromats, and public transit are phasing out change.
As society evolves, our money must evolve too. The death of the penny isn’t the end of small value. It’s the beginning of a more streamlined system, one that reflects how we live now.
What We Lose (and What We Gain)
We’ll lose that thrill of spotting a lucky penny on the ground.
We’ll lose the metaphor: “a penny for your thoughts,” “a penny saved is a penny earned,” “pennies from heaven.”
We might even lose a bit of wonder.
But we gain efficiency. Simplicity. Environmental benefit (zinc mining is no friend to the planet).
We gain a government that stops throwing good money after bad. And maybe, just maybe, we learn to place value where it belongs, not in copper tokens, but in equity, access, and modernity.
Nostalgia Never Dies
Even if the penny disappears from minting, it will live on in:
Collections
Time capsules
Old jars in the garage
And memory
You can still find pennies from 1909, 1943, 1967, each with its own story, a snapshot of history. That’s what gives old money value: not its buying power, but its backstory.
Like the French farmer who unearthed a fortune in buried gold, treasure isn’t always in the currency…it’s in the narrative.
And the penny, for all its fading glory, has one of the richest narratives of all.
What the Penny Teaches Us About Value
This moment invites reflection, not just about coins, but about how we assign value.
If we can’t let go of the penny, maybe it’s not about the money at all. Maybe it’s about identity, sentiment, and our resistance to change.
But what if change (tehe) is exactly what we need?
Millionaires rarely keep change in their pockets. They invest in ideas, time, systems. In fact, most millionaires don’t even think in terms of dollars…they think in units of value.
Maybe we should too.
Maybe it’s time we traded the past for a lighter future.
Thoughts From a Fading Coin
If the penny could speak, it might say:
“I was never meant to last forever.
I carried a country through wars and recessions,
sat in the palms of presidents and children,
bore Lincoln’s face and the weight of generations.
I was your first tip, your last cent, your good luck charm.
And now, I go the way all small things do…
into memory, and into meaning.”
Want to Keep a Penny Forever?
If you’re not ready to let go, this collector’s penny keepsake is a beautiful way to honor the coin that once shaped our pockets and our perceptions:
Lincoln Penny Keepsake Set…includes historic coins and a display case. (I actually bought this out of nostalgia!)
Whether you frame it, gift it, or place it in a jar with other relics of a fading age, it’s a reminder that sometimes, the smallest things leave the biggest imprint.
