The final U.S pennies were minted last Wednesday afternoon in Philadelphia, marking 232 years of the American symbol of luck and frugality. AP News reports that President Donald Trump ordered the penny’s demise as costs climbed to nearly four cents per penny and the one-cent valuation became somewhat obsolete. Billions of pennies are still in circulation and will remain legal tender, but new ones will no longer be made, the U.S Treasury reports.
The penny was the first currency authorized by the United States from the Mint Act of 1792, signed by George Washington. Colonists had previously used a mix of foreign coins before the bureau was established. While the Lincoln penny has become the longest-running and most well known design, several other unique versions of the American penny exist throughout its 232 year history.
The first pennies struck at the U.S. Mint were made of pure copper and were much larger than the modern one-cent coins seen today. The principle design shows a youthful bust of a wild-haired Liberty facing right with long flowing hair, with the motto “Liberty” reading above. The reverse side shows a circular chain with 15 links, representing the number of states in the union at the time.
In a move made to reduce unnecessary government spending, Trump announced via a post on “X” that he had ordered the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to stop producing new pennies. “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents…This is so wasteful!” Trump wrote on “X” back in February. The government ordered the last penny materials in May 2025, AP News reports.
So what does this mean for businesses and consumers? The U.S. isn’t the first country to stop making its smallest coin. Canada stopped making pennies in 2012, Australia eliminated one-cent and two-cent coins in 1992 and New Zealand discontinued its smallest coins between 1990 and 2006. These countries successfully implemented rounding for cash payments while keeping exact prices for electronic payments. With the phasing out of new penny production, it is expected that new rules for cash payments will be instituted.
A proposed bill in Congress would require stores to round your total to the nearest five cents. H.R. 3761, introduced in 1989, suggested a rounding system whereby cash purchases would be rounded down to the nearest five-cent price when the total transaction amount, including sales taxes, ended in one, two, six or seven cents and rounded up when the total price amount ended in three, four, eight or nine cents. So far, there has been little to no government guidance for businesses on how to handle penniless transactions. Consumers who rely on cash, such as the unbanked and those with low incomes, are most likely to be negatively impacted by price rounding.
While the end of the penny represents a practical step toward a more efficient monetary system, it may be bittersweet for some. The one-cent coins have been embedded in American culture for more than 230 years, with many Americans seeing pennies as lucky or fun to collect. For many people, the penny holds sentimental value and is a symbol of thrift, as the saying “every penny counts” suggests.
