No More Pennies: U.S. to Stop Making 1¢ Coins After 2026
The United States is gearing up to ditch pennies!
If you haven’t heard, the U.S. Treasury has set the stage to sunset the production of pennies. It was recently announced that they’ve ordered their final batch of “penny blanks”, and the coins will no longer be produced once they run out. This is expected to happen sometime early next year.
In terms of wasteful spending, this change certainly makes a lot of cents as it costs substantially more to produce a copper penny than they are worth – in fact, it’s more than triple! 🤯
So what does that mean for consumers?
This change could eventually push retailers to round prices up or down to the nearest nickel, as it’s projected that there won’t be enough pennies in circulation to support cash payments.
However, it’s also been suggested that the U.S. will follow in the footsteps of Canada, which ended its penny production way back in 2013. In turn, they round cash transactions up or down to the nearest nickel. And since only cash payments are affected, credit, debit, and check payments remain the same as they always were.
And don’t worry, even once production and distribution have ended, the penny will still be a valid currency if you still have them. 🙌
A penny for your thoughts? Drop us a comment below!
Finally, it is time the Treasury department did this. Long overdue.
I wonder how they will do this when tax is added to the total? Also will credit or debit transactions be charged less than cash.
We’ll keep watch for any further information on this as it becomes available. 🤗
So much for penny wars as Elementary school fundraisers
I am bummed by this announcement.
My kids really enjoy getting a penny pressed at places we visit and collect them as souvenirs. It is the least expensive souvenir around!
My now 27 year old did this. He has his in a jar on a bookshelf in his office. Pennies will still be around plenty long enough for your kids to continue to do this until they are grown.
I don’t like the idea of your total being rounded up due to lack of pennies. A penny still has value even though many disrespect this little coin, but I can understand why the US will stop minting it.