The penny’s run is coming to an end. First minted in 1792, it has been in circulation constantly. It wll be sunseted next year. Afterward, things that cost a penny must “round up” or “round down” to a nickel.

Per the latest U.S. Mint report, it costs less than six cents to make a dime ($0.0576). To make a quarter, it costs about 15 cents ($0.1468), and nearly 34 cents for a half-dollar ($0.3397).

Treasury Department will take pennies out of circulation next year. Costly nickels, however, could cancel out savings.

The federal agency placed its final order for penny blanks this month, with the United States Mint slated to end manufacturing of the penny when that runs out, a Treasury official told CBS MoneyWatch.

"The United States Mint will continue to manufacture pennies while an inventory of penny blanks exists," the spokesperson said. The agency did not specify how long the inventory was expected to ...

The penny coin is getting phased out, a cost-cutting move that could ripple through consumer behavior, retailers' pricing strategies and cash transactions. Why it matters: It'll be harder to make sense out of cents and get exact change after the one-cent coin's upcoming demise.

The U.S. Mint took top honors in "Best Circulating Coin" at the 2025 Mint Directors Conference for the work on the Jovita Idár issue in the American Women quarter dollar series.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” Trump posted on social media. “I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let's rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it's a penny at a time.”