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What are we supposed to do now that the United States Treasury is ordering the U.S. Mint to halt the production of pennies?

Does that mean we’ll have to stop saying a penny saved is a penny earned….a penny for your thoughts….a bad penny always turns up….penny wise and pound foolish….pennies from heaven….rub two pennies together….not a penny less….and penny pincher.

What about when we see our neighbor drive up on a brand new Porsche and we say….bet’cha that cost a pretty penny.

And will penny ante poker become obsolete?

I expect there will still be pennies in general circulation, meaning we can still hope to have a bit of luck if we stop and pick one up (heads up, of course) that someone inadvertently dropped. The Federal Reserve backs up my assumption as they estimate there are 114 billion pennies still in circulation in the United States. But what we won’t see in the future are newly minted pennies…bright and shiny…..fresh out of the coin wrapper.

Pennies will remain as legal tender, just as they have for more than 230 years. Because of the sheer volume of pennies that remain in circulation, they will remain in use by consumers and merchants for the immediate future.

The move to halt production early next year is expected to save $56 million each year as it’s estimated that it currently costs three cents to produce a single penny. However, this low-value coin will still have a place in history.

The penny was among the first coins created by the U.S. Mint when it opened in 1792. According to the U.S. Mint, the design on the first penny was of a woman with flowing hair symbolizing liberty. The coin was larger and made of pure copper….compared to today’s smaller coin which is made of copper and zinc.

The U.S. Mint produced its first circulating coins (the copper cents) in late February 1793, with over 11,000 of them delivered March 1, 1793. At that time, each penny was hand engraved, a laborious and time-consuming process.

The “Liberty” penny remained in production for more than 60 years. In 1857, the coin got smaller and the metal composition changed to 88% copper and 12% nickel. With these changes came new designs. In 1857 and 1858 the new coins featured a flying eagle on the obverse and a wreath on the reverse. The “Indian Head” design appeared from 1859 to 1909.

In 1909, Abraham Lincoln became the first president featured on a United States coin in honor of his 100th birthday. The Lincoln penny obverse showed the image of Lincoln designed by Victor David Brenner that is still used today. From 1909 to 1958, the reverse featured two sheaves of wheat. From 1959 to 2008, the reverse was an image of the Lincoln Memorial designed by Frank Gasparro to commemorate Lincoln’s 150th birthday.

In 2009, the U.S. Mint issued four different pennies throughout the year as part of the Lincoln Bicentennial One Cent Program. The program recognized Lincoln’s 200th birthday and the 100th anniversary of the first Lincoln cent. The themes on the reverses represented the four major aspects of Lincoln’s life.

Over its lifetime, the penny has experienced unusual changes. In 1943, they were made of zinc-coated steel because copper was needed during World War II. At the beginning of 1943, a limited number of copper pennies were struck by mistake. In honor of the Mint’s 225th anniversary in 2017, pennies made in Philadelphia had a “P” mint mark for the first time. In 2019, the West Point Mint made special collectible pennies with a “W” mint mark.

Over 300 billion one-cent coins, with 11 different designs, have been minted in the United States since 1787.

According to finestknown.com, the U.S, penny was not the first one known by that name. The history of the penny goes back over 1,200 years ago, as the first pennies were made all the way back in 790 A.D. The word “penny” and its variations across Europe, including the German “pfennig” and the Swedish “penning,” originally denoted any sort of coin or money, not just a small denomination. In fact, Great Britain is actually the only country to have a denomination that is officially called the penny.

In the United States we have been calling our one-cent coins “pennies” for centuries, largely because our one-cent coin was inspired by the British penny. However, the one-cent coin or “cent” is the official name of the coins we endearingly call pennies today.

Actually, prior to the “Liberty” (flowing hair) penny, the first copper coins issued by the authority of the United States were the “Fugio” cents, struck in 1787 by a private mint. This coin was 100% copper and Paul Revere, a noted blacksmith and the man responsible for his famous “the British are coming” ride at the start of the Revolutionary War, supplied some of the copper used in the early production of these coins. The legends of these coins have been credited back to Benjamin Franklin, and the coin, as a consequence, has sometimes been referred to as the “Franklin Cent,” but also has been called “Sun Dial,” “Ring,” and “Mind your business” cents.

So, what happens when pennies become scarce? How will that impact consumers? Well, if an item purchased totals $11.77 (for example) and the buyer is paying that amount with a personal check, a credit card, or a debit card, then there isn’t any impact because no actual cash and coins were exchanged in the process. But if the buyer is using cash for that same purchase and they don’t have the correct change and if the merchant doesn’t have any pennies, I would expect the retailer to round up the amount to $11.80.

And what happens to all those “leave-a-penny-take-a-penny” dishes at store checkouts? I guess they will disappear as well.

And will the nickel be next on the chopping block? It now costs 11 cents make one nickel.

Cal Bryant is the Editor of Roanoke-Chowan Publications. Contact him at cal.bryant@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7207.