The debate on whether or not to keep the penny has been going on for years. The very first penny was first made back in 1793 with the image of lady liberty on the front, and now it has been officially cancelled after a little over 230 years.

It has been declared that it is very wasteful to continue making the penny.  Due to the high cost of production at nearly $0.04 cents each penny (3 cents more than its cost), it is not worth spending the extra money to make. With 3 to 4 million pennies minted every year, the cost savings of not making the penny anymore is about $56 million per year.

 The last batch of pennies that were minted for circulation was in July, 2025. Even though there will be no more pennies produced, there are nearly 300 billion still in circulation. On November 12th, 2025 the US Treasury made 5 more pennies which will be classified as collector’s editions. These last five pennies are worth way more than face value and will be put up for auction very soon.

 With Abraham Lincoln’s image the penny has a lot of historical significance and will be the end to a meaningful part of American heritage. While most people agree the cost to actually produce the penny is not very good, one of the biggest concerns is that businesses will use this as an excuse to raise prices on things which isn’t right, especially with how much prices have raised in general on everything.