Tag: coins

1 in 7 Americans Want to Nix All Coins

When the U.S. Treasury announced it was finally pulling the plug on the penny, a bunch of people went “Noooo!”… before realizing they had not actually used a penny since Blockbuster Video was a thing?

The penny got the boot because it costs more to make than it’s worth. That alone feels like a metaphor for half the things in our junk drawers. But for some Americans, eliminating the penny was just the warm-up act.

According to a new survey, 24% of people say they would also be fine tossing nickels into the historical dumpster. Meanwhile, 58% want to keep them, including 34% who strongly oppose nickel extinction. These are apparently very passionate nickel fans. Nicklers? Nickelheads? Nickelbacks? (Sorry.)

But here is the real plot twist: 14% of Americans want the government to stop making all coins. Every last one. No pennies, no nickels, no dimes, no quarters, no rogue Sacagawea dollars haunting the bottom of your purse. Just round everything to the nearest dollar and call it a day. No more loose change in your cupholder, no more jingling pockets, no more “Does anyone have 17 cents?” at the gas station.

If you’re wondering why this debate exists at all, here is the fun part. Pennies cost 3.7 cents to make. Nickels cost nearly 14 cents.

That said, dimes and quarters do cost less to produce than their face-value.

As for how often people actually spend pennies, the answer is: they mostly do not. Nearly 30% of Americans say they would not even bend down to pick up a penny off the ground. 11% claim they use pennies every day, which honestly feels like a bigger confession than they meant it to be. That group tends to be older, lower-income Southerners. Another 19% use pennies weekly, 18% monthly, and a solid 28% say they never spend pennies at all. Another 16% use them so rarely it might as well be a leap-year tradition.

So the penny is gone. The nickel is sweating. And somewhere out there is a very determined 14% who dream of a future where everything costs a clean, round number and your only loose change is that one rogue guitar pick in your pocket.

R.I.P. Penny, You Did Good

Start digging through your couch cushions and car cupholders, because your spare pennies might soon become collector’s items.

The U.S. Mint just produced its final penny—ever. Yep, the iconic one-cent coin is being retired, and it’s all thanks to a directive from President Trump and one very basic math problem: pennies cost more to make than they’re actually worth.

On Monday, the last-ever U.S. penny was minted in Philadelphia, ending a run that dates back to 1793. That first version was solid copper. These days, the little guys are mostly zinc with just a tiny copper coating—because even our coins can’t escape inflation. But despite the cheaper materials, the cost to produce each penny is still about 3.7 cents. That’s more than triple its face value.

President Trump ordered the Treasury Department to shut down penny production back in February, citing the cost inefficiency. Now that directive has officially been carried out, marking the end of a truly tiny era in American currency.

Don’t panic though—your existing pennies are still legal tender, and there are billions in circulation. But once they’re gone, they’re gone.

Some businesses are already adjusting by rounding prices to the nearest nickel when customers pay with cash. (That’s rounding both up and down, so no need to freak out just yet.) Others are now requiring exact change, which could make cash transactions a bit more awkward moving forward.

Critics of the move point out that ditching the penny may have some ripple effects, especially for folks who rely on cash and don’t have easy access to digital payments.

And here’s another sad twist… nickels are next on the chopping block. According to the U.S. Mint, each nickel costs 13.8 cents to make. So, we’re losing money on those too.

This isn’t the first time killing off the penny has been proposed, but it’s the first time it’s actually happened. For now, it’s a farewell to one of the most annoying and underappreciated parts of your pocket change—and possibly the start of a slow march toward a more cashless future.

And who knows? Maybe someday, that crusty penny at the bottom of your junk drawer will be worth more than a dollar. Probably not, but hey, stranger things have happened.

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