End of pennies in US: It costs 4 cents to make a coin — here's how much money it will save and what happens next

The US Mint has reportedly made its final order of penny blanks and plans to stop producing the coin when those run out, a Treasury Department official confirmed Thursday.

According to reports, the US Treasury plans to stop putting new pennies into circulation in early 2026, when it has finished minting its final batch of penny blanks. After that, it will take years for the coins to cycle out of public use entirely.

This move came as the cost of making a penny rose to more than twice the coin's face value. The Treasury Department was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that the cost of making pennies had increased markedly, by upward of 20 percent in 2024.

The face value of 1 penny is one Cent. Hundred cents make one dollar.

Earlier this year, in February, US President Donald Trump called on his administration to cease penny production, whose buying power is long past its prime.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social site. “I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies," he added.

Why Trump wants to stop making pennies

1. How much it takes US to mint one penny coin?

Each penny costs nearly 4 cents — or $0.0369, to be exact — for the US Mint to make and distribute, according to the 2024 annual report by the US Mint.

As per the report, the penny's “unit cost” has gone up in recent years. The nearly 4 cent price tag is up 20.2 percent from the Mint's 2023 report, when a penny cost just over 3 cents.

2. Not making pennies will save THIS much

By stopping the penny’s production, the Treasury expects an immediate annual savings of $56 million in reduced material costs,an official told Associated Presss on condition of anonymity to preview the news.

3. Pennies are 'underutilized'

The Treasury said there are about 114 billion pennies currently in circulation in the US — that’s $1.14 billion — but they are greatly underutilized. The penny was one of the first coins made by the US Mint after its establishment in 1792.

In total, America's coin manufacturer said it shipped more than 3.17 billion pennies throughout its 2024 fiscal year. That's notably less pennies than it sent the year prior (when nearly 4.14 billion 1-cent pieces went out)

The US Mint often changes its new circulation based on public demand and seasonal trends.

What happens when there are no new pennies?

With digital payment already being the primary method of transaction for a majority of American businesses, the “change” will mean most things largely stay the same, the Peoples magazine reported.

Notably, other countries which stopped making pennies did experience much change.

Canada started phasing out its penny a dozen years ago and urged store owners to round prices to the nearest nickel for cash transactions.

Electronic purchases were still billed to the nearest cent. The move came after New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, and others dropped their lowest-denomination coins.

After Canada stopped minting new pennies, it began recycling them for their “valuable” copper and zinc, according to a 2022 report from the Canadian Mint.

The US will likely follow the lead of Canada — which stopped production of its one-cent piece in 2012 — and make those round to multiples of five.