An Ode to the Penny, For 233 Years of Service

BY OYIN ADEDOYIN AND KEN THOMAS

It’s been around nearly as long as America, but the coin eventually lost its shine

A penny saved was a penny earned. A penny bought your thoughts. A penny was pretty. A penny was pinched. A penny might even be hiding in your loafer.

There won’t be as much of that anymore. The Treasury Department said this week it was phasing out the penny.

After a lifespan nearly as long as the nation itself, America’s one-cent coin will begin to fade from the money supply. The U.S. Mint has ordered its last batch of the blanks used to mint the coins, and the Treasury expects to stop putting them into circulation early next year. The penny’s reputation has shifted over more than two centuries. At times a symbol of thriftiness, practicality and even luck, the penny more recently has come to symbolize

wasteful government spending.

Fewer people now use change in everyday transactions. But a penny costs nearly 4 cents to make, handing the government tens of millions of dollars in expenses each year. President Trump in February offered his 2 cents: Minting them didn’t make much sense.

Penny Marshall. Penny Pritzker. Penny Hardaway. The list of people named after the copper-and-zinc coinage is long. Soon, their names will represent a bygone era.

“Well this is awkward,” said Penny Lee, president and CEO of the Financial Technology Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade association. “I guess I have no one to blame but myself, given that I work for the fintech industry. Hopefully, people won’t retire me!”

Perhaps few will mourn the penny. Clayton Durant is among those who will. The 31year-old has 500 of them that date as far back as the early 1800s, part of his collection of more than 4,000 coins.

He wonders how future coin collectors will get into the hobby, because the penny was an easy and relatively cheap access point.

“The penny holds such a great, robust history,” said Durant, who works as a director at an advertising agency.

Pennies were born out of the Coinage Act of 1792, which established a mint in Philadelphia to start producing national coins. The following March, 11,178 copper cents rolled into circulation, each larger than a modern quarter. The coins were a monument to the new democracy. A picture of a woman with flowing hair on it was meant to symbolize liberty. There were no presidents on the coins, unlike in Great Britain where monarchs were on the currency.

It wasn’t until 1909 that President Lincoln’s face was placed on the penny to honor his 100th birthday.

Today, at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, a penny is embedded in the floor. A loose one is typically placed on top of it so kids can find it during their visit. Volunteer docents replace it for the next kid.

Over the years, the penny became well traveled. A historic one from 1909 got covered in Martian soil when it rode along with NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity in 2012.

But most don’t go anywhere at all. Some 60% of actively circulating coins, or as much as $14 billion, sit in jars, according to the Federal Reserve.

Sarah Bowen Shea, the cofounder of an online running community, is part of a small group of people who delight in picking up change on their runs. The 59-year-old stores the coins in jars in her home in Portland, Ore.

Halfway through her fivemile Thursday morning run, Shea stooped to pick up a shiny penny that was heads up. Taking it as a sign of good luck, she made a wish for her daughter’s well being. She didn’t know at the time that the Treasury had decided to stop circulating new pennies.

“My philosophy is, ‘If you don’t stop for the pennies, you’re never going to find any silver,’ ” said Shea.

After the Mint stops putting out new pennies, businesses will start to have shortfalls in the coins needed to make change in everyday cash transactions. They will have to round cash prices up or down to the nearest 5 cents.

The nickel, however, is no moneymaker for the government either. The Mint says each one costs nearly 14 cents to make. Mark Weller, a lobbyist and the executive director of Americans for Common Cents, a pro-penny group, believes the government should first address the high cost of the nickel. More nickels could be needed once the penny goes away.

“Focus on the penny alone loses more money for the government,” he said.