As prices rise, pennies fall

Picture this: you’re at your local pool buying a snow cone or a bag of gummy bears. The cashier looks at your pile of change and, with an exasperated sigh, starts to count the pennies you had no other place to spend. Many of us as kids remember doing this, but besides this scenario, when was the last time you can recall using a penny? It’s probably not often, and it likely won’t be long until that poor teen at the pool doesn’t have to worry about them any longer. On November 12, 2025, the last U.S. penny was minted, marking the end of an era and opening the eyes of the American people to the true extent of inflation.

238 years ago, the treasury of the United States put the first pennies into circulation. In a time of low prices and high prosperity, the penny was a useful way of paying in exact cash. Years came and went, and as the value of copper increased, the size of the penny decreased, and designs changed, yet the value remained the same. Now, in today’s economy, the iconic coin is worth practically nothing.

Over time, prices increased, but only recently did they skyrocket to heights where single cents could be considered negligible. Nowadays, the dollar bill is the new penny, assuming the role as the base unit of currency. Coinage now represents fractions, and pennies became nothing more than 1/100th of a dollar. The discontinuation of the penny stands as a testament to how inflated the economy has become. As corporations and the country grow in greed, both consumers and copper struggle to survive.

The purchasing power of the penny has decreased drastically over the past 200 years, leading people to stop using it to purchase things. Let’s go back about sixty years. It’s a hot summer day in the 1960s, and you pull into your local McDonald’s with a handful of change. For the low price of twenty cents, you could cool off with a refreshing ice cream cone. Maybe your best friend wants a glass of Coke? No problem! Fork over the same price and you’re good to go. Nowadays, you’ll be spending $1.79 just for a drink, and $1.49 for a small ice cream cone (depending on the location). This shows how little the penny can buy today in comparison to back then. Over time, as the prices of goods have increased due to inflation, the purchasing power of the penny has practically flatlined, making it worthless, so it was about time that the production of pennies would stop.

Despite the annoyances and issues caused by halting the production of pennies, it has led to several environmental and economic benefits for the U.S. Most pennies are made up of 97.5% zinc, and 2.5% copper, and it costs around $0.0369 to make one, which was more worth than the actual penny, meaning that we were losing money just creating them. Plus, we had to mine and smelt down those resources, which required manual labor, resource collecting, and the actual process of minting the pennies. Also, there are a lot of pollutants that get released because of mining, which can contaminate waterways, heavy metals polluting the environment, and machinery adding CO2 to the atmosphere and contributing towards global warming. So, stopping the production of pennies has led to the U.S. wasting less money, and decreasing our carbon footprint.

Overall, the end of production for pennies won’t change our lives very much, but pennies were a very important part of history, and have sentimental value for many people. Because of inflation, pennies have become practically worthless and no longer serve much of a purpose as currency. Eventually, even the nickel may stop production in the next 25 years. It’s hard to be certain, but as money loses its value, we lose the need to keep creating it.

William Southern and Jack Butler are members of the Multimedia Journalism class.

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William Southern

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