send oneFIELD NOTES / 002 / IS IT DISCONTINUED ·
Is the Penny Discontinued? What Happens to the Pennies You Already Have
The factory closed. Your pennies did not.
Yes, the penny is discontinued, in the sense that the United States stopped producing pennies for circulation. The final ceremonial strike happened at the Philadelphia Mint on November 12, 2025. No, the pennies you already have are not worthless. They are still legal tender, still worth one cent each, and you can still spend them or deposit them.
Quick answer: Production of circulating pennies ended on November 12, 2025. Existing pennies remain legal tender at full face value. When a store runs out of pennies for change, Treasury guidance says it may round a cash total to the nearest five cents. Card, check and other non-cash payments are still charged to the exact cent.
When and why penny production ended
On February 9, 2025, President Trump ordered an end to penny production. In May 2025, Treasury placed its final order for penny blanks, the plain metal discs that get stamped into coins.
The last circulating pennies were struck on November 12, 2025, when U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach struck the final five at the Philadelphia Mint. The government first issued the penny in 1793, so that was a 232-year run.
The reason was cost. In fiscal year 2024 it cost the Mint 3.69 cents to make and distribute each one-cent coin. Treasury projected an immediate savings of $56 million a year in reduced material costs. The full year-by-year story is in how much it costs to make a penny.
The Mint still makes pennies in limited quantities for collectors. It just stopped making them for your cup holder.
Are pennies still legal tender?
Yes. Treasury’s FAQ says pennies remain legal tender and keep their face value indefinitely. Nothing was recalled. Nobody is coming for the jar.
What changed is supply. Banks get coins through Federal Reserve distribution sites, and as penny inventory ran down, those sites stopped filling penny orders one location at a time. The St. Louis Fed reported that as of January 20, 2026, no coin terminals in its district were filling penny orders “due to insufficient inventory.” Some sites started taking penny deposits from banks again on January 14, 2026.
Nobody agrees on exactly how many pennies are still out there. Treasury’s FAQ says about 114 billion. Treasury figures quoted by Reuters at the final strike put the number near 300 billion. Either way, there are plenty. They are just rarely where the cashier needs them.
What stores do now: rounding to the nickel
Treasury’s guidance says businesses should keep accepting pennies and giving them as change while they can. When penny change isn’t available, a business may round the final cash total to the nearest five cents. The guidance is non-binding, and states may handle it differently.
The common method, as described by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond: totals ending in 1, 2, 6 or 7 cents round down. Totals ending in 3, 4, 8 or 9 round up. Totals ending in 0 or 5 stay put.
A few ground rules from Treasury’s FAQ:
- Rounding is for cash only. Cards, checks and other non-cash payments stay exact to the cent.
- Rounding happens on the final total, after taxes and fees. Sales tax is generally still figured on the exact amount, though each state sets its own rules.
- Businesses should round in a fair, consistent and transparent way.
Some retailers picked their own lane. One Midwest convenience chain rounds every cash purchase down to the nearest nickel, in the customer’s favor. A New York chain went the other way and hands back a nickel when it owes you a penny. Some state and local laws restrict rounding, which is part of why the rules vary from place to place.
Does rounding cost shoppers anything? Treasury expects the ups and downs to roughly balance out. Richmond Fed economists estimated a small net cost to consumers, about $6.06 million a year nationwide, based on how real transaction totals tend to end. It is, fittingly, small change about small change.
What to do with a jar of pennies
- Spend them. Treasury encourages it. Pennies are still accepted, and a store short on change may be quietly grateful.
- Deposit them. Banks still take pennies, though some ask that coins be rolled or wrapped first. Check with yours before you haul the jar in.
- Don’t melt them. Federal rules (31 CFR 82.1) prohibit melting, treating or exporting one-cent coins unless Treasury authorizes it. Your craft project can find another metal.
- Keep a few. They are history now. Very common history, but history.
A note on value, before anyone gets ideas. In December 2025, sets of the very last pennies, each stamped with a special omega symbol, sold at auction for nearly $17 million combined. Those were a handful of specially marked coins. The pennies in your jar are worth one cent each, which is exactly what a penny promised to be worth in the first place.
The U.S. isn’t the first country to do this. Canada stopped distributing its penny on February 4, 2013, rounds cash totals to the nearest five cents, and leaves electronic payments exact. Commerce survived. So did Canada.
And if you’d like one of your pennies to have a slightly more ridiculous career, Chris is asking everyone on Earth to voluntarily send him exactly one. The multiplication lives on the math page, the fine print lives in the FAQ, and the origin story is here. Keeping your penny is also a perfectly reasonable response.
Spend it, deposit it, or send one to the jar.
Not affiliated with the U.S. Mint, the U.S. Treasury or the Federal Reserve.
Sources: Treasury penny FAQs, Reuters on the final strike, Coin World on the final strike, Mint FY2024 costs and the February 9 order, final blank order, St. Louis Fed on penny supply, Richmond Fed on rounding, NACS on retailer rounding, 31 CFR 82.1, Philadelphia Inquirer on the auction, Canada Budget 2012.
Meet the penny jar ↗By Chris. All articles