I wasn’t surprised last week when the U.S. Treasury announced that it will stop production of the cent, commonly referred to as a penny.

The possibility has been there for more than a decade, with an ongoing debate over how it would impact the way people make purchases.

The production and distribution of a penny costs more than the value of the coin, and it’s been that way for years.

Back in 1982, the Mint made the decision to change the composition of the penny to make it more cost effective. Until then, the penny was 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc. The price of copper made continuing that composition cost-prohibitive.

Instead, the penny was changed to a 99.2% zinc planchet with a copper plating. Zinc is cheaper than copper, and the new penny is also 20% lighter than the copper penny.

But even the zinc penny has now become a money-losing proposition. Today, a penny costs 3.7 cents to produce and distribute.

When the Treasury finally discontinues the penny, it is estimated to save taxpayers about $56 million.

As a former (and still occasional) coin collector, I won’t really miss the penny when it’s no longer minted. Many coin collectors, myself included, stopped saving the more recent issues, mainly because there isn’t much chance of them ever having much numismatic value.

The Mint made 5.36 billion pennies in 2022, 4.5 billion in 2023 and 3.23 billon in 2024. Even going back to 2010, the Mint produced anywhere from four billion to over eight billion pennies a year. Through March of 2025, the number is about 581 million.

So the big question is: with a population of just over 341 million people in the U.S, where are all the pennies? Coin collectors aren’t hoarding them. They’re likely sitting in jars and coffee cans because people don’t like the inconvenience of carrying them in pockets or purses.

Many stores don’t want to bother with them either. I’ve already had convenience store clerks just round things down to the nearest nickel instead of picking two or three pennies from the cash register. Many people don’t even take pennies in change. They just leave them on the counter.

The U.S. Mint will continue to  manufacture pennies until its inventory of blanks runs out. The Mint made is final order of penny blanks in May.

Once penny production stops, consumers will still be able to use them. But without any new pennies being circulated, businesses will start rounding up or down to the nearest nickel.

That’s until the Treasury decides to discontinue the nickel, which costs 13.8 cents to produce and distribute.