Apparently, the traditional 1 penny coin of dollar, or “penny”, has days numbered. The measure of ending the production of new penny currencies in early 2026 was confirmed by the US Treasury Department, at the request of President Donald Trump, in one of the measures to reduce public money waste.
This currency has been in circulation for 233 years since 1792. And for 116 years the portrait of President Abraham Lincoln recorded in it.
“Penny” is so rooted in American culture that there are everyday expressions that use their image, such as “a penny saved is a penny gain” or “a penny for their thoughts.”
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“For a long time, the United States has coined cents, which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is a waste!” Trump wrote on the Truth Social Network in February. “I instructed my Treasury Secretary to stop producing new cents. Let’s eliminate the waste of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”
In fact, the Treasury Department reported that the cost of producing a single penny more than doubled in the last 10 years, from 1.3 cents to 3.69 cents in 2024. As a curiosity, printing a 1 dollar paper note is cheaper than producing the penny, which, according to the US currency house, consists of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper process and requires a process of founding process for shape the metals.
According to the Federal Reserve (the US Central Bank), printing a 1 dollar note costs the 3.2 cents recording and printing office.
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The US Mint reported a loss of US $ 85.3 million in the manufacture of cents in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the annual report of the Mint to Congress. Currently, there are about 114 billion cents in circulation in the United States, but they are very little used.
The Treasury Department has said it will stop producing new cents as soon as the blank molds are used to manufacture coins. Discontinue the “penny”, however, and a measure that needs the approval of Congress.
The penny will become the 12th name of the US currency to be retired, joining the currency of a penny, the coin of 2 cents, the 20 cents coin and the “trime”, a silver coin of three cents issued from 1851 to 1873, Caroline Turco, assistant curator of the Colorado Springs, Colorado, said, ABC News.
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“We retired them for several different reasons, but usually because they were not being used or because they became very expensive to produce,” said Turkish.
The United States would not be the first country to eliminate the currency. Canada, for example, has decided to discontinue its penny in 2012. “Penny” has no longer been coined in the United Kingdom since 2024.
