On Nov. 12, 2025, the last penny was minted in Philadelphia, marking the end of its 232 years of life.
The cost of producing pennies had long exceeded their face value. By 2024, the U.S. Mint found it cost 3.69 cents to produce each penny, almost four times its monetary value.
So last year, the U.S. Department of the Treasury decided to stop producing the zinc coins. Beyond high production costs, federal officials also cited pennies’ minimal purchasing power and the decreasing popularity of cash transactions in their decision.
There had been a few attempts to phase out the penny in the past. For example, in 2017, the late Sen. John McCain introduced the Currency Optimization, Innovation, and National Savings Act. But experts told KUNR the federal government failed to provide clear guidance on how to handle cash transactions after the change. Meanwhile, businesses have been left to adopt their own rounding policies.
On DSW’s website, for example, the footwear store explained that for cash transactions, cashiers will round change ending between $0.01 and $0.04 up to a nickel. If the amount of change ends between $0.06 and $0.09, customers will receive a dime.
Over at Deli Towne USA, a sandwich shop located inside Shop-n-Go on the corner of Moana Lane and Lakeside Drive, cashier Melissa Septer said it's more of a case-by-case situation.
“We would either round it up to 50 cents or give them 45 cents if they were okay with not getting the pennies,” Septer said. “Most people don’t want the pennies anyway. They usually leave them or just tell us to keep them.”
She said the sandwich shop is not yet experiencing a penny shortage.
There’s currently a little more than 100 billion pennies in existence. The Treasury announced the Federal Reserve will continue circulating them and the coin will remain legal tender.
But Jay Zagosiky, a professor at the Questram School of Business at Boston University, said businesses weren’t given enough time to prepare for the change.
“That solution would be for Congress to pass a rounding law, allowing businesses to either round up or round down for cash transactions. That would take businesses that are facing this loss and ensure they could legally round down,” he said.
Other national chains such as Panda Express, PetSmart and Home Depot encouraged customers to pay with exact change or use credit, debit or contactless payment. Meanwhile, supermarket chain WinCo turned to its customers to help with their penny supply.
The WinCo on Northtowne Lane posted a sign by the cash register, saying customers can bring 300 pennies in exchange for a new reusable shopping bag.
The United States is not the first country to phase out the penny. 15 years ago, Canada ceased the production of its lowest-denomination coin. Government officials cited many of the same reasons for eliminating the penny as the U.S., including reduced purchasing power, cost of production and declining utility.
Businesses aren’t the only ones being affected by the penny shortage. Local community member Angelica Miner said the government rushed the process of implementing this change.
“It still puts billions of pennies out in the world that nobody's going to be able to do anything with, because there's going to be places that no longer accept it. It’s just going to be part of our history books, like, ‘Hey kids, once upon a time, there was a thing called a penny out there and this is what it looked like,’” she said.
