What’s the old saying? We don’t know what we've got until it’s gone? Perhaps the penny is more important than we thought. But the old one-cent coin has struggled for respect for years. You can’t buy anything with it anymore, not even a piece of candy. Most of us just toss them in a junk drawer or glass jar. A sad penny might lie on the sidewalk all day, untouched.
The U.S. Mint has produced the last batch of pennies, marking the end of an era. According to the Mint, the cost to produce each penny was 3.69 cents, hardly a worthwhile return for the taxpayer. However, by ceasing penny production, some retailers across the country are unable to make exact change due to a low or non-existent supply of pennies.
A survey by the Retail Industry Leaders Association found that thousands of stores are without pennies, and they are urging the federal government to act.
Recently, retailers Price Chopper and Market 32 held a Double Exchange Day, giving people double the value in a gift card for their pennies, as did retailer Giant Eagle, which offered double the value of customers' turned-in pennies in a one-day event on November 1st.
Rounding down is favorable to the consumer, but the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) estimates that thousands of stores across the U.S. could lose a combined $1 million-plus per day in revenue due to rounding down. NACS wants U.S. legislators to pass a bill that allows businesses to round transactions up to the nearest nickel until the federal government establishes a guideline or regulation on how to fix the missing penny issue. The situation will continue to be chaotic for some time.
What to Do With Your Pennies?
Find a Coinstar: You may have walked past one of the 17,000-plus Coinstar kiosks without noticing. This is a convenient way to exchange your pennies and other coins for cash. The process is simple: find a machine (typically located inside grocery stores), and deposit your coins to receive a cash voucher, which you can redeem at the checkout counter or customer service desk. There is a service fee of nearly 13%, so if you exchange $100 worth of coins, you will receive $87.
Collectibles: It’s a long shot, but maybe not. The most valuable penny is the 1943 Copper-Bronze Lincoln Wheat Cent Penny, which could be worth nearly $2.5 million. Or perhaps you have an 1880 Indian Head Cent, which might fetch about $150. The list of high-value pennies can be found in the USA Coin Book.
The Penny's Legacy
The penny is the latest U.S. coin to be discontinued. The half-cent, half-dime, large cent, double eagle, and several others have come and gone. The nickel could be next. It costs nearly 14 cents to produce a nickel, almost triple its face value of five cents. The problem is that the nickel is made up of 75% copper and 25% nickel, and these metals have doubled in price over the last decade.
The penny may be going away, but its history is packed with interesting facts:
President Lincoln wasn't always on the penny: Honest Abe was only featured on the coin in 1909 to honor the 100th anniversary of his birth. Lady Liberty was the first image to grace the penny, back in 1793.
Newer pennies have very little copper: Pennies produced after 1982 are made of copper-plated zinc, consisting of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper.
You can easily clean a penny: Vinegar, cooking oil, and water can help wash decades of grime and dirt off a penny. But "don't, don't, don't" even think about doing that if you are looking to find any collectibles in your pile of pennies, as it could severely reduce the coin's value, according to one coin shop owner.
The meaning of D, S, and P: The letters on the obverse (front) of the penny denote the place of minting: D for Denver, S for San Francisco, and P for Philadelphia. But you will only see the P on pennies produced in 2017, which commemorated the Mint’s 225th anniversary. In other years, pennies produced in Philadelphia bear no engraved P.
Five special pennies: The last five pennies ever minted featured a special Omega symbol, chosen because Omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet. You will likely never see these coins in real life. All five pennies will not be released into circulation, according to the Treasury Department. Instead, the government plans to auction them off. Details on the auction have not yet been disclosed.
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