Kai Dixon

The penny lost its long battle with usefulness on November 12, 2025.

We gather here today to honor the life of our dearly departed friend, the penny. I remember when I was a child and I found a penny heads-up on the ground (and acknowledged it) for the very first time. That small superstition made my day, and I believed I’d be lucky for the rest of it. Throughout my life, I’ve collected pennies, convinced I’d someday save enough money to be able to afford a small mansion in LA. I’m sure many of us had similar experiences. Now that I’m older, I get to experience the painstaking process of counting out change in pennies while a customer stares straight daggers into my soul, as if I can count faster and am simply choosing not to. Nonetheless, the penny will be missed.

The penny was tragically taken from us in a decision made by President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent on November 12, 2025 in response to government spending. President Trump described the production of the penny as “wasteful,” and he was correct. Producing a single penny costs 3.69 cents, according to the US Mint’s 2024 report, which is more than three times the face value of one cent. While that alone isn’t much, those cents build up fast, and they put a significant enough dent in government spending that it was deemed wasteful. Thus, the penny’s life will end officially in the early months of this year. 

Our specific version of the penny, the Lincoln one-cent penny, was first introduced in 1909. However, it went through many phases before that. The first circulated copper coin was created in 1787 by Benjamin Franklin called the Fugio cent. The coin was larger than our modern-day penny, made entirely of copper, and featured a circle of joined rings on the back with the phrase “We Are One” in the center. On the front, the phrase “Mind Your Business” was engraved in all capital letters. Those are some great messages. Maybe we should start printing them on everyday items again and see if anyone learns anything.

1787-2025. What a short life. Though our beloved penny is gone, I am sure its spirit will live forever at the bottom of my bag, somewhere, where I can hear it jingling around but can’t quite reach it. Throughout its lifetime, the penny has always been most famous for its copper composition. However, as of today, only about 2.5% of the penny is copper, and the other 97.5% is zinc. Its 2.5% copper make-up comes from copper plating around a zinc core, which is a significant decrease in copper since 1982 when the coin was 95% copper with a mixture of bronze metals. This decrease was caused by the rising cost of copper, making it uneconomical for full-copper coins to continue to be produced. Now we’ve run into that same issue, even with such a small amount of copper being used. According to the US Mint, by discontinuing the penny, they have estimated that they will be able to save about $56 million dollars annually.

The changes made by discontinuing the penny lend themselves to both pros and cons. On the negative side, charities who rely on penny donations in order to raise money will face difficulty continuing those fundraisers, and low income households will be affected by rounded prices, while also disproportionately affecting those who rely on cash rather than a bank-supplied card. On the more positive side, besides the major amount of money that will be saved by the government, the discontinuation of the penny will benefit the environment by reducing zinc mining, transactions will be smoother and take less time, and low value currency will be reduced, effectively simplifying cash-handling and payments. Still, how will we go on without the penny? Will our 99 cent deals be rounded up or down? Will they take other coins next?

Well, as for prices, some states have laws against rounding prices up or down, but they’ll need to get flexible unless someone is paying with a card. Not to worry. Many other countries, such as Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, have pulled this off before with minimal downsides. It doesn’t seem like the government is coming for any of our silver coins either, so the most likely outcome would be prices rounding up or down to the nearest five cents. In fact, there’s around 250 million pennies still circulating, and the US Mint has assured us that the penny will continue to be accepted as a valid form of currency and legal tender indefinitely. 

So, this is and isn’t a goodbye. In reality, we still have years left using the penny in our transactions. Although I can’t remember the last time I actually did that, I’m sure when all of the pennies have been spent and collected, I’ll be mourning the loss of our beloved coin.