For the last 232 years, a small circular piece of copper and zinc known as the penny has been the smallest denomination of currency in the United States. Originally introduced in 1793, the last one has been minted by the US Treasury department. While it was announced in May, there are already penny shortages all over the country that are costing companies money, and some stores are even paying people to bring in their unwanted pennies.
What’s that old saying? You don’t miss something until it’s gone? Maybe the penny was more important than we thought. But the old one-cent coin had been fighting a losing battle for respect for years. You can’t buy anything with them anymore, not even a gumball. Most of us just toss them into a junk drawer or a glass jar. A sad penny can even lie on a sidewalk all day and not get scooped up.
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The US Mint struck the last pennies marking the end of an era. According to the Mint, it was costing 3.69 cents to make every penny. That is hardly a smart return on investment for taxpayers. However, with the discontinuation of penny production, some brick-and-mortar businesses across the country have been unable to give exact change because they lack sufficient pennies, if any.
A Retail Industry Leaders Association survey revealed that thousands of stores have no pennies, and they are calling on the federal government to take action.
Grocery chain Price Chopper and Market 32 recently held a Double Exchange Day, when people brought in their pennies and received double the value back in the form of a shopping voucher. Similarly, grocery chain Giant Eagle offered gift cards worth twice the amount of pennies customers brought in during a one-day event on Nov. 1.
Millions at stake
CBS News asked several large companies how they would handle cash transactions if there were shortages of pennies at the counter. McDonald’s said its restaurants would round up or down to the nearest nickel, meaning an order costing $12.43 would round up to $12.45, but an order costing $12.42 would round down to $12.40.
Wendy’s, Kwik Trip, and GoTo Foods — parent company of Auntie Anne’s, Cinnabon, Jamba and Carvel — all said they would round down to the nearest nickel in favor of the customer. Kroger will encourage customers to use exact change, but still accepts pennies.
Rounding down is beneficial for consumers, but the National Association of Convenience Stores estimates that thousands of stores across the US could collectively lose more than $1 million a day by rounding down. The NACS wants US lawmakers to create a law that would allow businesses to round transactions up to the nearest nickel. Until the federal government establishes guidelines or regulations on how to address the disappearing penny, things will remain chaotic for a while.
Others have ditched the penny
Mark Stiving, the CEO of pricing strategy company Impact Pricing, said the discontinuation of the penny will have “almost zero impact” on consumers and businesses in the long run. And he’s got the receipts from New Zealand to prove it.
“What I think is about to happen is that companies will still put prices out in ‘9’s (like $49.99),” Stiving told CNET. According to him, New Zealand used the rounding method after demonetizing and phasing out its penny. “You’d still price something at $9.99, but you just rounded it to the nearest nickel. So whenever a transaction happened, it was always the nearest nickel.”
Canada and Australia also dropped their penny equivalents years ago.
Be penny-wise and take action
You’re not going to find a fortune by foraging all the pennies in your home, unless you have an exceptionally rare one lying around. Still, if you dig around your bedroom, garage, kitchen and even your car, you might collect a few bucks worth. That’s not nothing. Would you let a $5 bill collect dust in a drawer? Of course not.
Find a Coinstar kiosk: You’ve likely walked by one of the 17,000 Coinstar machines without even noticing it. This is a pretty handy way to convert those pennies and other coins into cash. The process is simple: locate a kiosk (typically found inside a grocery store) and deposit your coins to receive a cash voucher, which you can then redeem at checkout or at the customer service desk. There is a service fee of nearly 13%, so if you redeem $100 worth of coins, you get $87.
Wrap the pennies and find a bank: Many banks and credit unions will accept your coins. They mat have a coin-counting machine, or they may ask you to organize the coins into wrappers, which is time-consuming, but it also will give you an idea of just how many coins you have been stashing. There may or may not be a fee, depending on whether you’re an account holder. (Note: Some banks will not accept prewrapped coins. They must be counted out or machine-checked to ensure they are legitimate.) Yes, people do hide same-weight slugs inside coin rolls.)
Just spend the coins: Gone are the days when you could ride your horse down to the general store and buy something with a penny, but there are still a few holdouts. Dollar General offers a weekly Penny List featuring out-of-season or discontinued items that have been marked down to one cent. Websites such as The Krazy Koupon Lady and The Freebie Guy provide weekly updates on what you can get for a penny at Dollar General, if those items haven’t already been removed from the shelves. The Krazy Koupon Lady even has a Home Depot hack where you can get items for a penny.
Find a collector’s item: It’s doubtful, but you never know. The most valuable penny is a 1943 Lincoln Wheat Cent Penny in bronze and copper, which could fetch nearly $2.5 million. Or perhaps you have an 1880 Indian Head Cent, which could net you around $150. The USA Coin Book list of valuable pennies is available here.
Fun and skills for kids: Those pennies could help you level up your arts and crafts toolbox. Help kids learn about budgeting, create some art, or do a science experiment. You’ve got options! Check out even more ideas at Greenlight.
Is the nickel next to go?
The penny is the latest US coin to be discontinued. The half-cent, the half-dime, the large cent, the double eagle and several others have all come and gone. The nickel could be next. It costs nearly 14 cents to make, almost three times the face value of the five-cent coin. The problem is nickels are comprised of 75% copper and 25% nickel, metals which have doubled in price over the last decade.
It will be tougher, however, to eliminate the nickel than the penny. Rounding up or down to the nearest dime could cost US taxpayers $56 million per year, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. That is significantly more than the estimated $6 million rounding hit per year caused by the penny’s retirement.
A penny for your trivia
The penny may be vanishing, but its history is full of fun facts.
President Lincoln was not always on the penny: Honest Abe only became the star attraction in 1909, in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth. Lady Liberty was the first to appear on the penny, back in 1793.
Newer pennies have little copper: Pennies minted after 1982 are made of copper-plated zinc, which consists of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper.
You can easily clean pennies: Vinegar, vegetable oil and water can help wash away decades of soot and grime off those pennies. But “don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t” even think about it if you want to hunt for any collectables in your penny stash. It could significantly damage their worth, says one coin shop owner.
50/50 coin toss? Try 80/20: Stanford math professor and former magician Persi Diaconis says that a penny will land tails up 80% of the time because the side with Lincoln’s head weighs significantly more than the tails side.
What D, S and P mean: Lettering on the front of the penny indicates where it was minted: D for Denver, S for San Francisco and P for Philadelphia. But you will only see P on pennies minted in 2017, which was done to celebrate the Mint’s 225th anniversary. In all other years, pennies minted in Philly did not have the P engraved on them.
Five special pennies: The final five pennies ever minted feature a special omega symbol, chosen because omega is the final letter in the Greek alphabet. You are unlikely to ever see one in real life. Those five pennies will not enter circulation, according to the Treasury Department. Instead, the government plans to auction them. Details about the auction are not yet available.
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