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No More Pennies

Close-up of a pile of shiny copper pennies, showing the heads and tails of U.S. one-cent coins.
GRACE CARY—GETTY IMAGES

The penny has died. At the age of 232, the coin’s final batch was minted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 12. There are an estimated 250 billion pennies still in circulation. These will continue to be accepted as legal tender.

In May, the U.S. Mint announced that the cost of producing one penny was nearly four times its value. It expects to save $56 million per year by not producing the coins.