The Penny Is Dead as Currency. As a Collectible, It's Just Getting Started

The U.S. Senate voted on September 28 to kill the penny — and, in the same breath, to keep it alive.

By unanimous consent, the chamber passed the Common Cents Act, a bipartisan bill that now heads to President Donald Trump's desk. The legislation directs the Treasury secretary to cease minting pennies for circulation and codifies rounding rules for cash transactions. But tucked into the text is one clause that preserves the 1-cent coin as a product line: the Treasury secretary "may continue to produce and issue one-cent coins for sale as numismatic items," or collectible currency.

The bill sets explicit rounding mechanics. Where exact change cannot be provided, prices ending in 1, 2, 6, or 7 cents round down to the nearest nickel. Prices ending in 3, 4, 8, or 9 cents round up. Pennies minted before the law takes effect remain legal tender.

The Trump administration ended penny production last year, citing cost. Each 1-cent coin runs nearly 4 cents to manufacture — a loss of roughly three cents on every unit struck. The last pennies for general circulation were minted last year.

The Mint did not immediately return a request for comment on whether any commemorative pennies are now in the works.

A familiar business line

The collectible clause plugs the penny into an existing — and lucrative — Mint operation. Beyond currency for general circulation, such as dollar bills and quarters, the Mint produces commemorative coins and medals in limited quantities. The medals are not money. The commemorative coins technically are legal tender, though collectors buy them rather than spend them. The Mint prices them with a surcharge, and the proceeds fund causes, memorials, museums, and other projects.

The first commemorative coin was the 1892 Columbian Exposition half-dollar, showing Christopher Columbus on one side and his ship, the Santa Maria, on the other. The modern federal commemorative program dates to 1982. Since then, according to the Mint, it has raised more than $500 million for projects including the restoration of George Washington's home, preservation of the Vietnam War Memorial, and sponsorship of Olympic programs.

The program has issued silver dollars and $5 coins. It has never issued a commemorative penny. Special-edition 1-cent coins dating back to 1909 have all circulated under a single theme: Abraham Lincoln. The 2009 Bicentennial One Cent Program, for example, marked 200 years since Lincoln's 1809 birth in a Kentucky log cabin.

What changes now

Until now, every penny the Mint struck served dual purposes — currency and, occasionally, collectible. The Common Cents Act splits those functions. Circulation pennies stop. Collector pennies, at the Treasury secretary's discretion, can continue.

That creates an odd commercial position. The coin that cost the government nearly four times its face value to produce becomes a product sold above face value, with a surcharge, to buyers who value scarcity rather than spending power. The economics that doomed the penny as currency — negative margin on every strike — do not apply to a collectible priced by demand.

It also opens new ground for the Mint's numismatic catalog. A commemorative penny program would be a first for the modern era, and the Lincoln association gives the Mint a ready design tradition stretching back more than a century.

For consumers and retailers, the practical changes arrive with the rounding rules: nickels become the smallest unit of cash change, and pre-Act pennies stay spendable indefinitely. For the Treasury, the sunset closes a money-losing production line while keeping the option to monetize the coin's brand.

If the Treasury secretary exercises the clause, the penny's next chapter will look less like pocket change and more like the Mint's half-billion-dollar commemorative business.