photo credit: Sophia Robinson
With the economy growing and changing constantly, a major event has happened. According to USA Today, America’s last penny (for now) was struck at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia on Nov. 12. This milestone marks the, at least, temporary end of the production of the penny.
According to the United States Mint, the Secretary of Treasury decided to suspend the production of the penny this year. This is the first time a Secretary of Treasury decided that producing the penny was unnecessary for the United States. This is a huge change for the country as the penny has been produced since 1793.
In my opinion, this is a great idea. In many ways, it will positively impact the economy and the country overall. First of all, pennies will still be available, just not produced any longer. Pennies will still exist in mass, due to the fact that in 2024 alone, the US Mint produced and shipped around 3.2 billion pennies. That is a very, very large number of pennies, and that is one year alone.
This change will also help the government sector of things as well. Firstly, the penny is just not cost effective to make any longer. Recently, it was determined that the cost of producing one penny is 3.69 cents, which has significantly increased from a decade ago, when it cost merely 1.42 cents to produce a penny.
The production of pennies has actually cost the government to lose money, and by stopping the production of this coin, the government can save more money. The US Mint predicts they will save around $56 million per year when they stop producing the penny.
To me, this sounds like a very smart move, and will help our government save a lot of money. Along with this, the penny can still be used, meaning it definitely won’t be going away and will still exist like the $2 bill. Many Americans will probably still have pennies lying around somewhere. So, if someone is sad to see the penny go, just know it won’t truly disappear. Due to my lack of cash spending, I have tons of coins laying around my house, so I’m sure there will be no lack of pennies in the United States.
Another important factor to consider is online banking or payment. According to the World Economic Forum in Oct 2022, 41 percent of Americans pay for none of their weekly regular purchases with cash. I can only assume that this number has gone up, due to things like Apple Pay, Greenlight cards for kids, and more.
Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I paid for anything with cash. It simply isn’t necessary. At least from my experience, many places (especially sporting events) have gone cashless, and it isn’t even an option to use cash. And I also assume from experience that this number will go up just as it has in recent years. Apple Pay, especially, is such an easy and convenient way to purchase things that I believe it will be used more than cash very soon.
With digital banking and payment, the exact sum of money will be taken out of the account I use to pay for something, which means pennies, coins, or any form of physical money will be unnecessary, as the transaction will occur solely online. With such an uptick in online payments, pennies aren’t truly that useful, since everything occurs online.
Also, by simply looking around a store or online, there is really nothing people can buy with a couple pennies anyhow. There is truly no benefit to having pennies.
This leads me to the very reasonable conclusion that pennies are simply not worth producing anymore. Besides for keepsake (which can be done using existing minted pennies), there are no pros to penny production. It’s clear to see that in this situation, the cons heavily outweigh the pros.
Especially in this age of digital payment and banking, the usefulness of physical money will soon be over. Although this is a very sad truth, it is honestly inevitable. The average person no longer uses cash, and it is clear to see this will not end anytime soon.
The production of pennies is simply just not worth all the cons.
