# When will the US mint stop making pennies?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685>\
**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:** 1\
**Showing post:** 24

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685/24 "2011-10-05T19:13:26Z")

</div>

> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> I’ve been for getting rid of the penny for awhile, but I became a total convert when I got my change from Taco Bell and it was missing one penny and I realized that I didn’t really care. Then I wondered if the cashier was doing this on purpose, and calculated that over the course of his shift he could make a whopping dollar or two by shortchanging pennies at the very most (most likely less)! Big whoop! If it’s not even worthwhile to steal pennies, then get rid of it posthaste.
> 
> This thread is about the _mint_ no longer making _pennies_. That does not mean that prices will no longer be allowed to be demarcated in pennies (see: Gallons of Gas, 9/10 cents charge on.)

How could one buy a 44 cent stamp at the Post Office without pennies?

And don’t say “round up to 45 cents”. Because that means the effective postage rate is 45 cents, not 44 cents. And that means a 1 cent increase in postage, which needs to be specifically authorized.

---

_[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-us-mint-stop-making-pennies/598685)._