# When will the US mint stop making pennies? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 5, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685 "2011-10-05T14:35:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/61 "2011-10-08T19:27:00Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > There are ways to deal with this situation. Someone has to go to the bank on a regular basis, so why can’t you keep on hand a few hundred dollars in fives and twenties, so when the servers cash out, they can trade all those singles in for larger denominations? Then the **singles** get traded for larger bills the next time someone goes to the bank, and the cycle repeats. ETA: I meant “dollar coins”, not singles. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/62 "2011-10-09T03:19:40Z")
It would be interesting to see what would happen if the pennies weren’t minted for a 5 or 10 year hiatus. Would people go digging around in their old coat pockets and under car seats? It’s 150 years since we dropped the half-penny. It’s time we quit paying out the mint overage. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2011, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/63 "2011-10-09T04:41:10Z")
The one thing I’ve never understood is… why do we keep making the penny? I can sort of understand the reasoning to keep it in circulation, but if the mint stops making them for even a single year, wouldn’t the number of pennies in current circulation be able to cover it? You could even encourage people to bring their pennies into the bank. Make some deal with Coinstar and give an extra bit of cash for pennies. Or am I just crazy? ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2011, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/64 "2011-10-09T04:57:23Z")
In Peru, our coins and bills have to be accepted, always. You can buy you Audi R8 V10 with 1 céntimo coins. Having said that, the 1 céntimo coin (worth 1/3 of a penny) was dying a natural death since it was basically useless except for poor people buying two or three buns. Then, some shop began not accepting the coin (illegally) causing, sometimes minor inconveniences. There came the stupid-ass Consumer Defense guy and basically forced, through an incredibly fact-deficient media campaign, the Central Bank to mint the coins is bigger quantities. The tiny motherf\*\*\*ers were ideal to get lost in your pocket, they even had to switch from brass to aluminium. Long story short, three or four years later (after the "outrage ended), the coin was recalled and later demonetised and nobody cried its death. Our smallest coin is now 5 céntimos, about 1.5 cent and you nver see in use. I wouldn’t give to a beggar. Pennies are only for change, not for buying stuff. Every time I go to the US, I get faster than I can use them. I’d love a 50 cent, 1 dollar and two dollar coin. KILL THEM ALL!!! ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2011, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/65 "2011-10-09T12:34:59Z")
The penny will never be discontinued. Americans love the penny. It’s an icon. Also, Americans hate change. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/66 "2011-10-09T23:59:48Z")
From the Wiki article (emphasis mine): > [@](#): > > On February 28, 2008, Rep. Zack Space (D-OH) introduced the H.R. 5512, the Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2008. If enacted to law, the act would result in the penny being made primarily of steel and treated to have a copper color within 270 days of enactment unless the Secretary of the Treasury can come up with a new element for coin composition that, when added to zinc and copper will lower the price to manufacture to under one cent. According to the act, “Given the current cost to make a penny and volume of pennies minted, simply reducing penny production costs to face value, the United States will save more than $500,000,000 in the next ten years alone”. After committee hearings, the House passed the bill on May 8, 2008 by voice vote.\*\* However, the bill died in committee in the United States Senate.\*\* Why am I not surprised by that? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/67 "2011-10-10T12:46:43Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Americans love the penny. It’s an icon. Also, Americans hate change. Huh? Oh. . ._change_. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/68 "2011-10-11T03:22:07Z")
Actually, when I was living on U.S. military bases in Germany back in the mid-'90s (which used U.S. currency on the base), the penny had already been eliminated. (I’m not sure if it was ever subsequently reintroduced–I sure hope not.) This was because the U.S. military discovered it was wasting ridiculous amounts of time and money ferrying bags of all-but-worthless pennies back and forth across the Atlantic. Anyway, I found that living without the penny was completely painless. First off, _prices_ weren’t changed. The only thing that changed was that _ **cash** _ transactions were rounded off to the nearest 5 cents. If you paid by credit card or debit card, the transaction was not rounded. In such a system, if you paid for ten 44-cent stamps (total of $4.40) with cash, nothing needed to be rounded. However, if a cash transaction came out to $10.31 or $10.32, it was rounded down to $10.30. If a cash transaction came out to $10.33 or $10.34, it was rounded up to $10.35. So half of all cash transactions were rounded down, and half were rounded up. It all balanced out over time. ---
**Author:** ![rvanmeerbeke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a5b964/32.png) [@rvanmeerbeke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rvanmeerbeke)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/69 "2012-05-06T00:48:54Z")
Well, once again the US is sucking hind tit. Canada has announced the their national mint is about to strike its final penny. Washington bureaucrats aren’t paying attention. The penny is expensive and no longer worth picking up off the ground. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/70 "2012-05-06T01:30:18Z")
> [@rvanmeerbeke](#): > > Washington bureaucrats aren’t paying attention. It’s up to politicians, not bureaucrats. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/71 "2012-05-06T02:03:35Z")
The U.S. has never minted pennies. The word penny is a holdover from British colonial days. The U.S. coin is and always has been a cent. I think the U.S. mint should crank out legal tender mill (one tenth cent) coins, if only in proof sets. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/72 "2012-05-06T04:11:06Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > Every few months Americans gather here to argue this same question, over and over again. > > Every time, people from other countries (such as Australia) where the smallest coins have been removed from circulation come in to offer _actual observations_ about _what actually happens_ when a country does the very thing that Americans are arguing about. > > Every time, the dirty furriners are ignored and the Americans continue to argue the same stupid shit back and forth endlessly. > > Here’s what happens: nothing. Prices are rounded, you gain about the same amount you lose, and the net benefit of no-one having to mess around with practically worthless coins is considered a profit by everyone. Life goes on, much the same as before, and even the people who argued most for keeping the 1 and 2 cent coins got over it and moved on with their lives and nowadays no-one wants them back. > > But, of course, since that didn’t happen to _Americans_, it didn’t really happen _at all_. > > OK, continue your arguments. Or people could read those endless threads about all the excitement in Canada over their new currency. Being more serious, how long ago was the farthing eliminated? And the half penny went in the 60’s (here). ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/73 "2012-05-06T04:20:02Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > The U.S. has never minted pennies. The word penny is a holdover from British colonial days. The U.S. coin is and always has been a cent. And it’s _called_ a penny. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685.md?page=3)