Goodbye penny and the potential writing on the wall

Written by SAM GARRETT

On November 12, the United States Mint stopped producing pennies. First introduced in 1793, a penny had buying power for food, drinks, gun powder or candles. Today, pennies are often lost in junk drawers and vehicle floorboards, effectively worthless.

According to the treasury department, for almost a decade America has spent just under four cents to create each one-cent penny “God bless America, and we’re going to save the taxpayers $56 million,” U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said as he pressed the button to cast the last penny.

Beach was named as treasurer by President Donald Trump in February 2025 and was instructed to discontinue production of the penny soon after his appointment as a cost saving measure for the budget. The penny will remain legal tender. The last coin the U.S. discontinued was the half-cent in 1857.

The National Association of Convenience Stores and the National Retail Federation announced that retailers will eventually round prices to the nearest nickel when the supply of penny rolls is exhausted. This is not expected to happen immediately due to the large number of pennies in circulation and the coin’s underuse.

The end of the penny is not a new concept. Four bills to eliminate the penny were introduced in Congress between 1990 and 2017 and none of them passed:

• 1990 – Representative Jim Kolbe introduced the Price Rounding Act of 1989, H.R. 3761, to eliminate the penny in cash transactions, rounding to the nearest nickel.
• 2001 – Representative Kolbe introduced the Legal Tender Modernization Act of 2001, H.R. 2528.
• 2006 – Representative Kolbe introduced the Currency Overhaul for an Industrious Nation (C.O.I.N.) Act, H.R. 5818.
• 2017 – Senators John McCain and Mike Enzi introduced S. 759, the Currency Optimization, Innovation, and National Savings (C.O.I.N.S.) Act of 2017.

The trajectory toward phasing out the penny changed in 2025:

• February 9: President Donald Trump announced he had ordered the treasury secretary to stop producing new pennies, a move he said would help reduce unnecessary government spending. Congress is the only authority that can approve addition or removal of coins or bills as legal currency. The treasury can print or mint the amount it deems necessary.
• April 30: Representatives Lisa McClain (R-MI) and Robert Garcia (D-CA) introduced the Common Cents Act, a bill to formalize an end to penny production and require cash transactions to be rounded to the nearest nickel.
• May 22: The U.S. Treasury Department announced it would end penny production.

The future of cash and coins in the U.S. is uncertain. Many foresee a move toward a cashless society in which everyone simply scans digital wallets stored in phones to complete transactions. Many countries are already doing this. The United Kingdom, Sweden and many others have all but eliminated cash as the norm. This trend accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Today in the United State no federal statute mandates that a private business, person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses may develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law that says otherwise. In North Carolina, there is no state law requiring that businesses accept cash. In 2023, the N.C. house passed a bill to require that businesses accept cash, and it did not pass the state senate. Today, in Watauga County, no law or ordinance requires the acceptance of cash.

The debate around going cashless has compelling arguments on both sides. Your level of skepticism may determine with which side of the debate you align. In general, the debate is centered on the concepts of individual freedom and control.

Arguments for eliminating cash and coins

1. Cash is easily misplaced or lost. Generally, debit/credit cards can be replaced and unauthorized charges may be refunded when cards are lost or stolen.
2. Non-cash options provide a digital record of every transaction so consumers can easily monitor expenses.
3. Digital payments help prevent corruption and make transactions more transparent.
4. Digital transactions may be processed more quickly.
5. Crime prevention: If no one carries large amounts of cash, they are not targets for robbery and if everything is digital it makes it easier for law enforcement to monitor activities of criminals.

Arguments against a cashless society

1. Many elderly people are electronically illiterate and going cashless would place an undue burden on them to function in society.
2. “Unbanked” individuals who have little or bad credit, financially illiterate people and those who do not have a permanent residence have a difficult time opening accounts to bank digitally.
3. Many people do not trust banks or the government and fear transaction tracking. Some residents of Appalachia have lived life paying cash for generations and have no desire to change that.
4. There are still areas with no internet or cell service. These “dead zones” would make it difficult to perform business transactions.
5. The lack of privacy is a dealbreaker for many.
6. The threat of mass technology failures or hacks causes anxiety.
7. Going cashless is the first step toward a social credit system. China started the move toward cashless in 2014 and by 2018 implemented the “National Model” social credit system. Cash still exists in China but is not a prominent part of everyday society.

What is the “National Model” in China?

Stanford University’s Institute of Economic Policy Research published an overview of China’s “National Model” on July 15, 2025. In short, every action in China is tracked and closed circuit television cameras are found in most public places. If citizen do things that are deemed by China’s communist government to be “bad,” their ability to manage and spend their money may be limited or terminated. For example, jaywalk too many times and a longer hold may be placed on payroll deposits. Try to refuse to take an experimental medication and they may not be able to use the subway during peak hours of operation. “Good” citizens, as determined by local government agency officials and local mayors, may receive a discount on their heating bills and have reduced police supervision of their day to day activities.

Social credit here?

If you are a democrat, imagine your joy of being rated as good or bad based on criteria set forth by a republican administration, and imagine the reverse if you are a republican. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, a “national model” would face a lot more fight than in communist China. The temptation for governments and banks to advocate for a cashless society as a means to control and monitor is very high.