The U.S. Mint struck the final 1-cent coin that will be used as legal tender on Wednesday, six months after the Trump administration announced that it would stop producing pennies because the cost of making them is almost four times more than they’re worth.
From now on, the only new pennies the Mint releases will be collector versions that aren’t currency and will be produced “in limited quantities,” the agency said in a statement.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Treasurer Brandon Beach were at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia when the coin press punched out the historic final penny, the agency confirmed.
“We’re saying goodbye to the penny today, but let me just be crystal clear, like I said, it’s still legal tender,” Beach said. “So you can still use it at your stores and retail outlets.”
As for the last penny, Beach said they plan to auction that one off as well as the one that was struck before it.
There are still an estimated 250 billion pennies in circulation, the American Bankers Association said in October. But back in February, President Donald Trump said it made no fiscal sense to keep producing cents.
“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump wrote in an online post. “This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the U.S. Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”
Officially known as the cent, the first penny was struck in 1787 and had a sundial design that was dreamt up by Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers. The U.S. Mint took over penny production in 1793, a year after Congress passed the Coinage Act.
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