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Is the Penny Still Legal Tender? Yes. Here’s What That Means
Still money. Still not a magic password.
Yes, the penny is still legal tender. The U.S. stopped making circulating pennies in November 2025, but it did not recall them or give them an expiration date. Legal tender just means less than most people think.
Quick answer: Under 31 U.S.C. 5103, U.S. coins and currency are legal tender, and Treasury says pennies keep their full value indefinitely. But no federal law requires a private business to accept cash. A handful of states and cities do require it. Separately, federal rules make it illegal to melt or export pennies and nickels, with narrow exceptions.
What the law actually says
The legal tender statute is short. It says United States coins and currency, including Federal Reserve notes, are “legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.” Then it excludes foreign gold and silver coins. That is the whole thing.
Nothing in it mentions denominations, so a penny is as legal as a hundred-dollar bill. Treasury’s penny FAQ says the penny remains legal tender and keeps its full monetary value indefinitely, and that the Federal Reserve will keep recirculating existing pennies for as long as possible.
What legal tender does not mean
The Federal Reserve’s own FAQ is blunt about this. There is no federal statute requiring a private business, a person or an organization to accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Businesses can set their own policies on cash unless a state law says otherwise.
The distinction is between a debt and a sale. Legal tender status makes U.S. money a valid offer of payment for a debt you owe. It does not, by itself, force a coffee shop to take your coins before it sells you anything. A card-only sign is generally legal, unless you are standing in one of the places below.
Where stores have to take cash
These are the cash acceptance laws we could confirm at an official source. It is not a complete list.
Massachusetts. Connecticut’s Office of Legislative Research reports that Massachusetts bars retailers from discriminating against cash buyers, under Chapter 255D, Section 10A, with fines of up to $500.
New Jersey. A 2019 law, N.J.S.A. 56:8-2.33, generally bars in-person retailers from refusing cash. It does not cover phone, mail or internet sales, and it exempts some airport sellers, certain parking facilities and rental car companies.
Connecticut. As of a September 2025 legislative report, Connecticut law generally bars retailers from refusing cash, posting signs saying cash is not accepted or charging more for cash, under Section 21a-434 as amended in 2025. It applies to in-person sales and has exceptions, including parking, some membership stores and professional services. A store can also comply by offering a machine that turns cash into a prepaid card.
Colorado. House Bill 21-1048, signed May 10, 2021, requires retail establishments to accept U.S. currency. It exempts places with no person taking payments, places with a no-fee cash-to-prepaid-card machine, and banks and credit unions.
New York City. The city’s consumer protection department says businesses must accept cash unless they have a cash-to-prepaid-card machine, and that cash includes coins. It adds, specifically, that businesses may not refuse penny payments or charge more for paying in pennies.
Philadelphia and San Francisco. Connecticut’s 2020 legislative report listed both cities, along with New York City, as generally requiring retailers to accept cash.
None of these laws require a website to take your penny.
Pennies after production stopped
Treasury estimates there are about 114 billion pennies in existence. They are all still money. What changed is that businesses without penny change may round cash totals to the nearest nickel, which is covered in detail in how rounding to the nickel works. Rounding changes how a cash total is settled, not what a penny is worth.
Pay with exact change and the penny is doing its job. The fate of the jar at home is in what to do with your pennies.
Melting and exporting: the part that is actually illegal
You can spend a penny. You can save a penny. You mostly cannot melt one. Federal regulations at 31 CFR Part 82, published in their current form in October 2007, say that except as authorized by Treasury, no person shall export, melt or treat any U.S. one-cent or five-cent coin. Treating, in the rule’s definition, means smelting, refining or otherwise processing by heat, chemicals, electricity or machinery.
The exceptions are specific. You may ship up to $100 in face value of pennies and nickels at a time if they will be used as money or for collecting. A traveler leaving the country may carry up to $5 of them, or up to $25 for personal collecting, amusement or recreation. Treating coins for educational, amusement, novelty or jewelry purposes is allowed, as long as the volume and method make clear that the point is not to profit from the metal. Coins swept up incidentally in recycling other materials are exempt. So are the wartime 1942 to 1945 nickels made with silver. Anything else needs a written license from Treasury, and applications go to the Director of the Mint.
The penalty for violating the rule can include a fine of up to $10,000, up to five years in prison, or both. That is a lot of trouble for a coin that cost the Mint 3.69 cents to make in fiscal 2024, a story told in how much it costs to make a penny.
The short version
A penny is legal tender. A store is usually free to decline it, unless state or city law says otherwise. And the federal government really does not want you turning it into something else.
Chris would like to suggest a legal alternative. He is asking everyone on Earth to voluntarily send him exactly one cent. It does not get melted or exported. It just gets counted. Details are in the FAQ.
Legal, tender, and only one cent. Send it here.
Not affiliated with the U.S. Mint, the U.S. Treasury or the Federal Reserve.
Sources: 31 U.S.C. 5103, Treasury penny FAQs, Federal Reserve FAQ on legal tender, Connecticut OLR 2020-R-0037, Connecticut OLR 2025-R-0071, New Jersey A591, Colorado HB21-1048, NYC DCWP on cashless establishments, 31 CFR Part 82, 31 CFR 82.1.
Meet the penny jar ↗By Chris. All articles