Image of pennies being made in a factory

The U.S. Mint produced 3.2 billion pennies last year. That’s about 100 pennies each second. 

Stephen Hilger/Bloomberg via Getty Images (U.S. Mint); Shutterstock.com (background, pennies)

The End of the Penny

The U.S. Mint has been making pennies since George Washington was president. But production of the one-cent coin will soon come to an end. In May, the Mint placed its final order for the material to make pennies. President Donald Trump had called for the U.S. to stop making them a few months earlier.

Why stop producing pennies? The cost has a lot to do with it. Pennies are made from zinc and a thin coating of copper. The cost of both metals has skyrocketed in recent years. As a result, each one-cent coin now costs nearly four cents to make. The U.S. government estimates that it will save about $56 million per year by no longer making pennies.

Also, the penny isn’t as useful as it once was. There are tens of billions of pennies in circulation in the U.S. But Americans spend them far less than they use other coins. Instead, pennies often end up in change jars or lost between couch cushions. 

The U.S. government expects to stop putting pennies into circulation in early 2026. Though the Mint will no longer produce pennies, people will still be able to use them to make purchases. But eventually, stores will have to start rounding their prices to the nearest nickel. That might require minting more nickels. Making the five-cent coin costs nearly 14 cents! 

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