BOISE, Idaho — The US Mint says 3.2 billion pennies were shipped last year, accounting for 54% of all new change. For coin collectors like Jock Summers, it’s a downright nuisance.
“They're kind of annoying for collectors, really,” Summers said. “They're just a pain. They're in everybody's couches, they're in everybody's drawers, and they really don't have a whole lot of value in hardly any of the dates.”
President Trump announced in a Truth Social post last week that he has instructed The Secretary of the Treasury to stop producing new pennies, although a formal executive order has yet to be issued.
Although a penny saved is indeed a penny earned— for some the penny isn't worth the time and effort to pick up off the ground in a parking lot. A single one-cent penny costs the US Mint almost 4 cents to create. Certain pennies can be worth a substantial amount.
“What makes a penny, any given penny, actually have more value than one cent?” we asked.
“Usually it’s the mintage. It’s the mintage and it’s the quality of the coin,” Summers explained.
One specific penny, from 1909, was minted in San Francisco with the initials of artist Victor David Brenner.
“That's the key coin. That coin's going to start at $600, $700, and go up,” Summers said.
About to be ostracized, the penny could be joining other extinct currencies of the U.S.'s past, including the three-cent, two-cent, and half-cent coins.
