On Wednesday, November 12, 2025, the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia struck the nation’s last circulating penny. President Trump officially canceled the 1-cent coin since each one costs nearly 4x its face value to produce. When we asked over 6,000 US adult consumers leading up to November 12th, “Do you think it’s time for the US to stop using pennies?” 43% said, “Yes,” 35% were not in favor and 13% weren’t sure. Another 9% had no opinion. Interestingly, the majority (63%) who are in favor were men. (Just surmising it’s because most men I know aren’t fans of having loose change jingling in or constantly falling out of their pockets.) 61% of women do not believe is time.

In the short-term, retailers might feel some pain as they round their current prices to the nearest nickel. And those classic “only $39.99” price tags, meant to sound better than the full $40, won’t make sense anymore. Sure, they could switch to “only $39.95,” but now that psychological trick costs four cents instead of one. When asked, 51% of US Adults think it is unfair to round to the nearest nickel.

It’s hard not to feel a bit nostalgic. What happens to the “Lucky Penny”? Or putting a penny in our Penny Loafers? And what becomes of all those sayings like “A penny saved is a penny earned,” “Penny wise and pound foolish,” “A penny for your thoughts,” “not a penny to my name?” Somehow, “nickel-pinching” just doesn’t have the same ring.
And one lingering question remains: where do all the retired pennies go? Based on the old Frank Sinatra song, I’m guessing … heaven. RIP little copper coin.