The US Mint officially ended the production of pennies as of November 12. Will this affect you in anyway?

[Anonymous]

The US Mint ended the production of new pennies as of November 12. You can still use them as legal tender, they will still be in circulation, you can cash them in at most banks, use a Coinstar machine, etc, but once they slowly but surely cease to exist, most stores will round up if change is required. Will this affect you in anyway?

[Anonymous]

My family has procured the finest pennies for many generations. It all started when my great great Grandpapy migrated here to prospect for gold, but what he found was much more valuable - a humble penny. Whether it's a small penny, a big penny, an Abraham Lincoln penny or a Trump penny, if it's been minted we had it. It's honest work and while we ain't billionaires it's enough to give our family a comfortable life here in rural Oklahoma. When my old Grandpapy passed we got his ashes turned into a unique penny that we had framed on the mantle piece.

So you can see why, when the darned government announced that they'd no longer be minting pennies, our family was in ruins. My poor old Pops suffered a heart attack, and when they did an X-ray they found out his heart was one big penny. We are dreading the day the US Mint comes for his heart.

I got into a terrible argument with my wife, she wanted to move on a find a new venture, but I just couldn't leave our decades long family history behind. We ended up divorcing and she took the kids, Nickel and Penny, and the house while I was left on the streets. All thanks to those young liberals and their hatred of our old ways. It ain't so bad though, perhaps I can move on. The world never stays the same for long. Perhaps I'll try that new fangled "OnlyFans" the kids keep talking about.

[boundless]

It just causes inflation. If you were were going to make a purchase for an item that use to cost a dollar, but your sale tax rate is 7%, you can no longer pay a $1.07 for a final sale with a coin that allows payment in 1% increments of a dollar. As a result the price has to go up to $1.03 for the same product so that when sales tax is applied it comes out to $1.10. This then applied to every single taxable item in the store. So if you go in for 10 items you pay a thirty cents more for the same product you use to pay a thirty cents less for. Do that every day and you'll get nickle and dimed into the poor house over time. It all adds up. You're not getting charged more because the demand for a product has risen, you are getting regulated by the government to pay more.

[LiamS95]

When they quit making pennies in Canada they just rounded down thd sale to the closest payable cent required if you paid with cash, unless you paid with plastic.

[boundless]

@LiamS95 I heard they are doing a lot of rounding down in Canada via euthanasia... :s

[Screenwriter]

Won't affect anyone who's paying by credit/debit card. For a few of us who pay by cash, might mean the vendors have to alter their prices so when taxes are applied there's only totals ending in zeroes and fives.

[Nikki1989]

The USA is weird. So advanced in some ways but so backward in most of the things it does. Pennies stopped being produced in 1964 in this country.

[ArrowheadSW]

I bought something at a self-checkout today, and it cost $9.09. I put a 10 dollar bill and a dime in the machine to pay for it. Instead of paying me 1 penny for change, it paid me a nickel. They are allowed to round the change up, but they aren't allowed to round the change down and keep the 1 cent.

[Asker]

Interesting. I've not yet run into anyone paying in cash or heard of this happening yet, but it's good to know. I haven't paid seriously in cash in years, so that random time I'll need to pay, it will be interesting.

[ArrowheadSW]

It did kind of surprise me to see this so soon. I was expecting a penny to come out, and there was a nickel.

[HawkPerception]

We stopped the production of pennies a while back in Canada. I remember the day my family turned in over 1000 plus pennies which were filling an almost half a human sized plastic coke container bottle full of pennies.

It's no big deal. Less space used.

[Asker]

It kind of makes me sad just a teeny tiny bit. My dad always taught me to save my coins and indeed, they saved me one month where I didn't have enough for rent, but I cashed in all my coins I'd been saving passively for months, and made the payment on time. Obviously I can still save coins as they are all not dead, but a huge part of the memories was wrapping pennies for my dad, and he would always say thank you kids for your hard work, and would give us the amount we wrapped for him in cash. We loved it.

[joehypo1]

No pennies will be in circulation for many years there is no shortage anytime soon it would be diffrent if the banks were taking them out of circulation when they do something like that they usually have something to replace it like the old 100 dollar bills they are still good but once a bank gets a hold of it they destroy it and the fed replaces it with a new one, i would be worried if they stopped making the dollar though

[Static_In_The_Attic]

For starters it’s about time the penny vanishes because it’s costing more to make & circulate than its actual value. Stores are going to round so in a way it will affect all of us especially when crooks round up. Overall an estimated 56 million dollars will be saved because right now it cost $3.69 to mint a single penny.

[WindAtMyBack]

A penny when I was in elementary school was worth a dime today. In other words, today's dime was the smallest denomination.

A penny when I was in college was worth more than a nickle today.

We got by with those "large denominations" then, we can do it now.

Pennies are currency. Most money is digital. So your bank accounts, pay checks, etc can still have cents (or even smaller).

[Likes2drive]

I knew about it and don’t think it will affect me much since most people use debit cards. It will be one less coin to collect but it will be years before they become scarce, Canada got rid of the penny many years ago but you still see them turn up even here in the USA

[Asker]

Yeah, some people think, oh, they just won't exist, but just by the process my whole life of collecting coins, I've found some that were several decades old still in circulation, so it's going to be a while.

[Likes2drive]

Yeah, exactly especially because I even come across wheat pennies still

[Lliam]

That sucks. Coins, including pennies, have intrinsic value because of the metal content. Plastic doesn't.
People are stupid for being okay with abandoning cash.

[Asker]

Well, all coins have not been killed, so there is that.

[Nice222]

Buy gold and silver coins. And save the precious 1982 copper pennies.

[Petermorgan343434]

It’s a crock of shit. It’s just another way the billionaires can steal more money from us. Many places will start to round up to the nearest five or zero which might not seem like a lot, but when it’s 3, 4, cents 1-3 times a day at minimum that will add up to a significant amount of money in one year, not to mention the subsequent years to follow

[abc3643]

Yes. I will miss pennys. I think this may be something of a mistake and it should have been phased in gradually because there are going to be some legal problems down the line. This decision was made too rashly without the legal implications in mind.

[Dargil]

Years ago I had a bucketful of change I fed into the "change cruncher" at the food store. $187. Lots of pennies in it They are said to have 3 cents of copper in them

[Asker]

Coins just have that nostalgia factor that plastic does not. I don't throw my credit card in the wishing well. I don't save up all my old debit cards to cash in for later, LOL!

[Twodogs0525]

Where I live, if you pay cash, they round everything down. For example, if I buy a tube of lipstick and it was $3.53, with tax, they'll round it down to $3.50.

[BadApple69]

It won’t affect me but it’ll be a sad day when they stop taking them in stores…. And that will happen.

[Asker]

But pennies are still legal tender. Doesn't make sense for any store to say no to them because they may be saving themselves money because they won't have to round up to give change. One local store near me is asking customers to bring in all their pennies so they can have them for their tills.

[DryGermanGuy]

Not coincidentally, we also have the discussion about ending production of the €-cent coin in the EU for quite a number of years now. A few countries already abolished its use.

[AviatorTom]

I collect coins and have the complete collection of Lincoln head pennies (1909-2025) now. It's good for me. I can concentrate on other denominations now, like Mercury Head dimes.

[slatyb]

It won't. It's about time. Merchants should adjust their prices to the nearest 5c, and prices should include sales tax.

[Asker]

Woah, woah, woah, what the heck. Slow down there. Stop trying to make changes that may improve things. That's not how America works.

[slatyb]

I know. I spent six weeks in France this year. Prices include all taxes, and restaurant prices include tax and service. What you see is what you pay. A few US businesses do this.

[LiamJHayden]

Most people seem to use cards now anyway and I still find pennies from the 50's and even the 40's in my change so I think we will be okay for awhile.

[Asker]

Me too. Some people act like the sky is falling because the penny is dead in terms of the Mint, but then you say to them, uh, when is the last time you even used cash/coin anyway? Everywhere takes card these days. I've seen the 25 and under set loose their minds in some stores because "gasp," they don't accept Apple Pay. The absolute confusion is funny to watch as they don't actually know how to pay or with what otherwise because they don't have anything.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

They are going to end production of all coins over the next few years. It costs more money than the coins are worth to produce them. They should have stopped using coins decades ago.

[ohsheeT]

And there are still many pennies out there with lots and lots of money. So , hold on to you , double check them

[mysteriousNicholas]

Sad the saying's or pop culture references to Penny's or pennies in film quotes or show quotes may become unrelatable lol I'm not American

[BeenThereBefore]

It's about time. A penny is just clutter in my pocket. In the past, we could buy something with a penny or two. Those days are long gone. Canada recognized the day of the penny was past years ago and eliminated it.

[Anonymous]

Apparently places are rounding up prices higher so, prices are going up even though pennies are still legal tender just not in production anymore.

[__Nikki__]

No, I hate having coins and they seem pretty pointless so I'm all for it.

[ABC1x1x]

I dont have any cash. Haven't touched it since debit cards were invented and haven't had any USD since Bitcoin was invented. If you have any "money" you are broke.

[exitseven]

Nobody has explained to me how stores will make change with amounts of money less than 5 cents

[douride2]

Canada quit making pennies years ago. It had no effect on things at all.

[DrPepper12]

Good riddance! Now let's plasticize currency to last longer & save $

[shortster]

It shouldn't, they just aren't making new pennies. There should be plenty of them still in circulation.

[nawtee_me]

No since there are so many in circulation already

[Bklynbadboy12]

This mean save your pennies cause they are gonna be valuable down the line

[Raaaappper]

I’m filthy rich and wipe my ass with Benjamin’s. What is a penny?

[purplepoppy]

How will i pay my staff now?

[Abbycado]

Nope. I use a card for everything.

[SueShe]

Darn, I can't tell you "a penny for your thoughts" anymore. I will have to upgrade to "a Grand for your thoughts". You cost me a fortune 😮

[WhitneySnow]

No. Not really.

[Iron_Man]

I like coins because I like to pay in cash

[Iron_Man]

I just got two pennies tonight back from Little Caesars

[MikeTheBartender]

No. And it's about fucking time LOL

[Mike_Whocheese_Harry]

won't affect me in the slightest.

[guesswhereivebeen]

I’m glad… fuck Pennie’s

[Awesomesauce2005]

I'm gonna keep my pennies 😎

[beefcakebradybatson]

We Canucks ditched the penny circa 2010.

[Cipher_Ledger]

No but will miss it for sure.

[Anonymous]

It won't cause I'm not American.

[robocop666]

Inflation, its getting worse

[dudeinohio]

Won't bother me.

[Anonymous]

Fuk that's my birthday.

[RedInnocent69]

About time 🙄