Why the US stopped making pennies: the 3.69-cent problem and 6 more surprises

The US Mint stopped making pennies for circulation in November 2025, after 232 years. The roughly 300 billion still out there are now all there will ever be, and a good share of them are sitting in jars.

If one of those jars is yours, the money step in this article is small. This weekend, roll or bag the coins, take them to a bank or credit union that counts coins free, and move the total into savings. The history inside that jar is stranger than it looks, so start there.

1. Each penny cost 3.69 cents

In its annual report for fiscal 2024, which ended in September 2024, the US Mint put the cost of making and shipping one penny at 3.69 cents, up from 3.07 cents a year earlier.

The Mint noted that the cent had cost more than its face value for 19 years in a row. That year it shipped 3.172 billion pennies and lost $85.3 million on them.

Cost to make and distribute one cent, by Mint fiscal year, from the Mint’s annual reports. The dashed line is the coin’s 1-cent face value.

Since 2020, when a penny cost 1.76 cents, the price has more than doubled. Any penny in your jar dated 2019 through 2024 cost the government at least that much to make.

The nickel was a worse deal still, at 13.78 cents for a 5-cent coin.

2. The last one was struck in 2025

In February 2025, the president told the Treasury to stop making new pennies. In May the Treasury said it had placed its final order for penny blanks, the plain metal discs that get stamped into coins, and expected to save about $56 million a year in materials.

The final strike

The end came on November 12, 2025, at the Mint’s Philadelphia plant, where US Treasurer Brandon Beach started the press for a ceremonial strike of the last pennies made for circulation. A few of the final coins carry a small omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

The Mint still strikes small batches for collectors, but none of them go to banks as everyday change. No penny made for circulation carries a 2026 date, which makes any 2025 penny in your change one of the last.

The cent’s run began under the Coinage Act of 1792, the law that created the US Mint.

3. The first cent was bigger than a quarter

The Mint struck its first cents in pure copper in late February and early March of 1793.

Each one was 26 to 27 millimeters across and weighed 13.48 grams, more than 5 times as much as today’s 2.5-gram penny.

Coins drawn to scale by diameter, from published specifications. The chain design was in production for only about two weeks.

For scale, today’s penny is 19.05 millimeters wide and a quarter is 24.26, so a penny laid on a quarter leaves a rim showing all the way around. The first cent was wider than that quarter and smaller than the 30.61-millimeter half dollar.

A design people hated

People disliked it on sight. The back showed a ring of linked chains, meant to stand for the union of the states, and some readers saw a symbol of slavery. On March 18, 1793, the Philadelphia newspaper The Mail called the chain “but a bad omen for liberty.” Within weeks the Mint had swapped in a wreath, after about 36,103 chain cents.

Big copper cents lasted until 1857, when Congress approved a smaller one.

4. In 1943, pennies were made of steel

World War II needed copper for ammunition and other military gear, so for one year the Mint made pennies from steel with a thin coat of zinc. It struck about 1.09 billion of them at its Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco plants.

The coins caused trouble almost at once. Fresh ones were silvery enough to pass for dimes. Vending machines with magnets meant to catch steel slugs caught the new cents too, the same way a fridge magnet will lift a gray 1943 penny out of a jar today. The edges rusted, since punching out the blanks cut through the zinc and left bare steel.

A woman in a 1940s shop holds a small silvery coin up to the window light, with a few copper coins in her other palm From 1944 to 1946, the Mint made cents from melted brass shell casings topped up with copper.

The steel cents were never made again, though plenty were still turning up in change years later.

5. Since 1982, a penny is mostly zinc

Copper prices rose sharply in the 1970s. A 1974 law, Public Law 93-441, let the Treasury change the cent’s mix of copper and zinc when it needed to, and it did so partway through 1982. Both kinds carry that year’s date, and the easiest way to tell them apart is a kitchen scale that reads tenths of a gram.

Before the switch, a penny was 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc and weighed 3.11 grams.

Since then it has been a zinc core with a thin copper plating. By weight that’s 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper, and the whole coin weighs 2.5 grams.

Metal content by weight, from the Mint’s coin specifications. In the newer cent, all of the copper sits in the outer plating.

On that scale, 10 older pennies weigh about 31.1 grams and 10 newer ones about 25.

6. Canada dropped its penny in 2012

Canada got there first. The Royal Canadian Mint stopped making pennies on May 4, 2012, when each one cost about 1.6 cents to produce. Banks stopped handing them out on February 4, 2013.

Since then, Canadian stores have rounded cash totals to the nearest 5 cents and still charged cards to the exact cent.

The US rounding rule

In September 2026, Congress passed the Common Cents Act, which lets stores round cash totals to the nearest 5 cents. Rounding is permitted, not required.

Cash total ends in	What happens
0 or 5 cents	Stays the same
1 or 2 cents	Rounds down to 0
3 or 4 cents	Rounds up to 5
6 or 7 cents	Rounds down to 5
8 or 9 cents	Rounds up to the next 0

The rounding the Common Cents Act permits for cash, the same pattern Canadian stores use. Card, check and electronic payments stay exact.

At a store that rounds, a $4.98 cash total becomes $5.00 and a $4.97 total becomes $4.95. Next time you pay cash, look for a rounding line on the receipt, which should never move the total by more than 2 cents.

7. Your pennies are still legal tender

Ending production didn’t cancel a single coin. Section 5103 of Title 31 of the US Code makes US coins and currency legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes and dues, and the Mint has said the penny keeps that status. It estimates about 300 billion pennies are still around, close to 900 for every person in the country.

Legal tender doesn’t force a shop to take them, though. The Federal Reserve’s own explainer says no federal statute requires a private business to accept cash. States can, and New Jersey and Massachusetts are among those that require most stores to take it.

Two hands in a cream sweater tip a glass jar of copper coins into an open canvas bag on a sunlit wooden counter, with a few coins scattered beside it A standard paper coin wrapper holds 50 pennies, or 50 cents.

At 2.5 grams each, 1,000 pennies weigh about 5.5 pounds and add up to $10. That gives you a rough count before you go. Pour the pennies onto a kitchen scale, and every pound is about 181 coins, or $1.81.

Empty the jar

Call your bank or credit union and ask two questions: do you count coins free for customers, and do you need them rolled first? Several of the largest national banks have removed their coin machines, while many regional banks and credit unions still count free for their own customers. Grocery-store coin kiosks that pay out cash typically keep around 12 to 13 percent of the total, plus a transaction fee under $1, which is more than $5 on a $40 jar.

This weekend, sort the coins, roll or bag them, and take them in. Move the deposit into savings the same day, while the amount is still printed on the receipt. Then rinse the jar and set it back on the shelf, empty, with the lid beside it.