Casa de la Moneda de Estados Unidos minted this last million one-cent coins after 232 years of legal tender. The country’s treasurer, Brandon Beach, was responsible for collecting the last dime at the Casa de la Moneda located in Philadelphia.
The decision came after US President Donald Trump ordered the Treasury Department at the beginning of the year to stop producing one-cent coins, due to their lack of importance and high cost. Each penny, as the piece is known, costs 3.7 cents to make. In other words, each coin is usually worth four times its value. Furthermore, producing and distributing funds is much more expensive each year. In 2024, it increased by 20%, according to the annual report issued by Casa de la Moneda. The increase in raw materials – the penny is made of 97.5% zinc with a copper bath – leads to a higher cost of producing the coin.
“For too long, the United States has collected one-cent coins that literally cost us more than our two cents,” Trump wrote on his social network Truth at the beginning of the year. He added: “This is a great joy!”
A dollar cent refers to the cent part of the reference currency of the United States. Penique was born in 1793 in Philadelphia under the patronage of the nation’s first secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton.
The penny has been around for 168 years longer than the average penny. The nickel, ten-cent coin, 25-cent coin, half dollar and one-dollar coins still survive, and are often exotic because they are difficult to find.
Although the last coin has been minted for a few years, pennies will remain in circulation. Casa de la Moneda will stop producing 3200 million cents during the last financial period and will not produce anyone from now on. It is estimated that about 250 million cents remain in circulation in the United States, according to the Asociación de Banqueros Estadounidenses.
Physical money is slowly declining with the advent of digital payments. Low value coins such as pennies are only used to exchange money for purchases. Merchants have been warned of a shortage of one-cent coins for transactions with their customers. Business associations in the commercial sector are pressing Congress to approve a law allowing the implementation of efficient transactions.
The penny has been a very popular currency in the United States. There has been a cultural impact with his presence in music, film and fashion. Great inspirational phrases – “Deme a penique por cada idea y me haré milonario” or “Cada penique cuenta” -. The means meets the requirements of small children. Cents were used to buy caramel, chewing gum, or sweets. They are hired to pay bribes or pay for parking meters. Today, however, they are destined to collect octopus in glass jars or get lost in cajuns or old garment bags.
A few pennies can bring a lot of value. There are exotic pieces that are the subject of collectors, who may end up paying large sums of money for them. For example, pennies that have a miscount or are in good condition, such as 1943 copper pennies.
Brandon Beach explained that the coins collected this million, that is, the last cent, will suffer from a lack of funding. So the last items put into circulation at this value were accumulated last June.
“The need to abolish the penny has been so obvious to those who have flaunted power for so long that the inability to achieve it has turned the coin into a symbol of deeper rot,” says a New York Times article last year.
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