WASHINGTON – The House voted Tuesday to end production of the penny, after years of debate over a coin that costs far more to make than it’s worth.
According to the U.S. Mint, each penny cost 3.69 cents to produce in 2024. The cost has exceeded the face value for the last 19 years.
In February 2025, President Donald Trump instructed the Treasury Department to stop producing pennies.
“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” he wrote at the time.
The House approved the bill, dubbed the Common Cents Act, without a roll call vote – a procedure reserved for the least controversial measures.
Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., who managed the floor debate, called the legislation an effort to “save taxpayer dollars and modernize a part of our currency system that no longer makes economic sense.”
“The numbers speak for themselves,” he said, erroneously stating that each penny costs $3.69 to make. “We have to be practical.”
Traditionally, lawmakers from Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, have resisted efforts to end production of a coin that has borne Abraham Lincoln’s likeness since 1909. That was the first U.S. coin to feature a president’s image.
But inflation has taken a big bite over the decades. It would take 37 cents today to equal the value of a penny in 1909.
Other countries have taken similar measures to discontinue low denomination coins. Canada, for instance, ceased production of its penny in 2012.
The Senate still has to approve the measure.
Pennies minted since 1982 have been primarily made of zinc and contain only around 2.5% copper by weight, and they account for only a small fraction of U.S. copper demand.
The bill would authorize the Treasury to adopt a lower-cost, zinc-based nickel to “ensure that increased nickel demand is not mitigating the savings due to the elimination of the penny,” Hill said.
Each nickel cost 13.78 cents to produce in 2024, according to the Mint.
“Nickels aren’t exactly a bargain either,” Hill said.
Under the bill approved Tuesday, pennies already in circulation would remain legal tender and electronic transactions would continue to be conducted to the exact cent.
Cash purchases, though, would be rounded to the nearest 5 cents when exact change isn’t available.
The Mint could still produce pennies as collector’s items.
The American Bankers Association, among other groups, supported the move.
Hill described the legislation as a recognition that the “government can do things more efficiently, making smart updates where they’re needed, saving money in the process.”
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