The penny has been in circulation for over 232 years. For many years, the one cent coin has been in discussion of retirement, but on November 12th, 2025 it has finally been discontinued for good.
The reason behind this decision is the value of a penny. The value is known in our everyday lives as one cent. Whether you are trying to give the exact change at the supermarket, or you find one on your car floor. It will no longer be around. AP News says, “it is nearly 4 cents to make or distribute each, or quadruple its value.”
Billions of pennies, the coins we ignore or find on the sidewalk, are made every year. Other countries like Canada and Australia were easily able to get rid of their lowest denominating coins. In April 2025, two lawmakers, Lisa McClain and Robert Garcia, questioned why we still need pennies and introduced the Common Cents Act. Action News says, “This would end penny production, and have cash transactions round to the nearest nickel.”
The use of the penny is also becoming rare. Many people resort to using some sort of online transaction, or just telling the cashier to keep their change anyways. Between being lost, collected or just put away, the penny is usually not even spent. With billions of pennies still in circulation, it will take years for all of the pennies to be gone. Even then people will still keep collecting them. All pennies are still legal tender, and can be used. The penny still has its value, the mint has just stopped producing it. Yahoo News says, “Stores are rounding cash transactions to the nearest nickel. So a $1.02 would round down to $1.00, while a purchase of $1.03 would round up to $1.05.”will now have to round down the change, if they are paying with cash. Places like stores will run out of pennies fast, so people using cash should notice a difference. It is not a huge deal, as it is truly only a few cents for a purchase. Many people wouldn’t even want their change anyways.
Now that the penny is gone this could put the rest of change in danger. The cost of a nickel is more than its face value, leaving only the dime and quarter having their price to make below their actual value. Meaning in the near future, cash transactions could be simplified to only having dimes and quarters. With society in the trend of online currency, all coins could be gone in the near future, leaving only dollar bills, and debit/credit cards.
