Pocket change: The demise of the penny

"Soon, the penny of poem and prose will vanish forever into the sock drawer of American history."

(Image credit: Grace Cary / Getty Images)

"Nobody wants to deal with pennies anymore," said Chas Danner in New York magazine. And so the death knell has been sounded for the humble one-cent coin. At President Trump's behest, the Treasury Department announced it would soon stop producing pennies; by 2026, no new ones will enter circulation. Critics have argued for years that the penny was becoming irrelevant and unaffordable and should be put out of its misery. There are already some 114 billion in circulation, yet many get lost under couch cushions or pile up in change jars, requiring endless minting of new ones at an unsupportable cost of 3.7 cents each. Last year, the U.S. produced 3.2 billion, for a net loss of more than $85 million. Add in countless "seconds of lost productivity" fussing with them at the register, and the solution is clear: It's time to "stop making cents."

The penny has been around "nearly as long as America," said Oyin Adedoyin and Ken Thomas in The Wall Street Journal. Benjamin Franklin made a one-cent coin in 1787 that said "Mind your business" on it, and the new U.S. Mint followed in 1793 with the first official national coins. Featuring no monarch or president, these coins were "a monument to the new democracy," even if President Lincoln's face was added to the penny in 1909 to celebrate his 100th birthday. But by 2006, the cost of the coin's two components, zinc and copper, had overtaken the face value, and the penny's fate was sealed. This is "sad news," said Rick Hutzell in The Baltimore Banner. "Soon, the penny of poem and prose will vanish forever into the sock drawer of American history." A penny for your thoughts? A penny saved is a penny earned? In for a penny, in for a pound? "No more."

Don't worry, pennies aren't "going anywhere soon," said Chris Isidore in CNN.com. They will remain legal tender. Eventually, though, as the supply "starts to run short," retailers will probably begin rounding cash transactions to the nearest nickel. That's what happened after Canada phased out its own cent in 2012. Even if you don't spend them, pennies "still have practical uses," said Manahil Ahmad in the Bergen Record. Older copper ones are "natural fungicides to keep flowers fresh," while a sock full of frozen ones is a makeshift cold pack or self-defense weapon. The penny's utility "could endure long after its final press."