After 232 years of manufacturing, the U.S. Mint stamped its closing batch of pennies on November 12, 2025.
In February, President Trump ordered the Treasury Division to cease minting pennies as a result of the federal government was shedding cash on each coin — because it price 3.69 cents to supply each penny, the manufacturing course of was practically 4 instances dearer than the worth of the coin itself (1).
Since many shoppers had come to see pennies as an annoyance, these cash had been typically discarded or thrown away. However when Trump made his penny announcement, folks started gathering the freshly-minted cash on the idea that they might be price some huge cash.
On-line sellers rushed to listing packing containers of brand-new 2025 pennies for $1,000 or extra, regardless of these packing containers having a face worth of simply $25, in response to The New York Publish (2). A Louisiana radio station even inspired listeners to purchase 50-cent rolls of pennies at banks and flip them on eBay for as a lot as $50 (3).
The pitch sounds compelling: get in early on a “collectible” earlier than it disappears endlessly. However coin consultants say anybody paying these inflated costs for pennies is probably going losing their cash.
“Each time there are tales about cash, scammers come alongside and reap the benefits of the headlines,” John Feigenbaum, government director of the Skilled Numismatists Guild and CEO of Whitman Publishing, advised The Publish. He estimates the U.S. Mint produced roughly a billion 2025 pennies earlier than manufacturing ended, and that doesn’t even embody the three-billion pennies that had been minted in 2024.
As Feigenbaum warns, sellers merely will not purchase a penny for greater than it’s price, so shoppers in all probability shouldn’t both. Moreover, the inflated costs showing on eBay and Etsy do not replicate real collector worth — simply vendor hype that seeks to use public confusion.
The state of affairs mirrors the 1976 bicentennial quarter craze, when People hoarded tens of millions of redesigned 25 cent cash considering they’d change into helpful. “Immediately they’re nonetheless price round face worth,” Feigenbaum famous with The Publish. “Shortage is shortage — for those who make a billion of one thing, it’s not uncommon.”
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There’s, nevertheless, one genuinely helpful 2025 penny product.
The U.S. Mint produced 232 particular omega-marked pennies in Philadelphia — in addition to one other 232 in Denver — to accompany the 232 gold variations that commemorate the denomination’s finish. These shall be auctioned in December and will fetch about $10,000 to $20,000 every (2).
The ultimate 5 pennies ever minted additionally obtained particular omega markings and shall be auctioned individually. Feigenbaum estimates these explicit pennies may fetch $2 to $5 million every, in response to USA Immediately (1).
Canada stopped minting pennies in 2012, and its expertise affords perception into what would possibly occur with our pennies south of the border.
In an interview with CTV Information, Todd Sandham — proprietor of Colonial Acres Cash in Kitchener, Ontario — revealed that pre-1997 Canadian pennies, which had been largely fabricated from copper, now promote for about three cents every as a commodity primarily based on the worth of copper (4).
However that modest appreciation took over a decade and applies solely to copper pennies. APMEX notes that U.S. pennies minted after 1982 are composed of 97.5% zinc with simply 2.5% copper plating, making them price even much less for his or her steel content material than the older 95% copper pennies (5).
Throughout a interval of real monetary pressure for a lot of People — with grocery payments, well being care prices and housing bills squeezing budgets — the promise of simple cash from hoarding pennies can sound interesting.
However that is largely a distraction from precise wealth-building methods. In the event you’re trying to flip small quantities of cash into monetary positive factors, penny rolls aren’t the reply.
Based on evaluation from Visible Capitalist, the S&P 500 noticed positive factors of 23% in 2024 whereas climbing 53% over the previous two years — one of many index’s strongest two-year performances for the reason that late Nineteen Nineties (6).
These returns got here from merely investing in index funds or ETFs that monitor the S&P 500’s efficiency, with no journeys to a number of banks or scouring eBay listings required.
The maths speaks for itself: a $100 funding in an S&P 500 index fund firstly of 2024 would have been price roughly $125 by yr’s finish. In the meantime, that very same $100 spent on two rolls of 2025 pennies at inflated costs would nonetheless be price simply $1 in precise foreign money.
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USA Immediately (1); New York Publish (2); 97.3 The Dawg (3); CTV Information (4); APMEX (5); Visible Capitalist (6)
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