Am I the only one who didn’t know we killed the Penny?

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/12/business/last-penny-minted

Last one was minted today.

I know it has been talked about for a while but didn’t realize a decision had been made.

Also interesting that Nickels cost more than what they are worth to produce more than Pennies do.

All of our local stores have signs up asking us to pay in exact change whenever possible as they're running out of pennies.

I can't even recall the last time I used a penny. I think I haven't had one in my pocket change in a long, long time.

I saw something about it earlier this week, or was it last week? I remember as a kid, my parents kept pennies because they were supposed end way back then.

But then, ending production doesn't mean they won't be used. That could years to get them out of circulation. The shortages started during the COVID pandemic. The shortages also seem to be localized, I've seen the signs asking for exact change, but they're far as few between.

And with the Kwik example, that only amounts to about $1.54 per store per week. Which is most likely less that they lose per week due to the wrong change given out.

Because the cost to produce a penny is more than an actual penny, unserious people have remarked that there is no reason to keep it around. Of course this ignores the fact that pennies remain in circulation for decades and have a very long useful life.

Yeah. I never got that argument. It isn’t like you use a penny once and throw it away.

Even though it costs more to produce one than it's worth, over the lifetime of a penny the number of times it is used adds up and outweighs what it cost to produce it.

Part of the steady march away from cash so your every expendature and movement can be tracked and scrutinized.

Once melt value exceeds legal + numismatic value (plus the share of fixed smelting costs and marginal smelting cost), smelters will take them out of circulation very quickly.

This. I use them every day. Also, the cart seems to be moving before the horse as prices don't reflect the removal of the penny.

Uh-huh.

So you don't have any credit cards, then? No bank cards? You pay for everything in cash?

You weren’t here for the bitch fit he threw when his telemarketing company made him move from printed checks to direct deposit it seems.

That's kinda funny for two reasons:
1) Another example of his impotent whining.
2) I can still collect a paper check from my university...if I wanted to.

I can grasp why someone would be against anything that isn't cash, but not really seeing how those two methods of payment are much different from each other...

The copper Pennie’s are largely already gone from circulation and I can’t imagine that the demand for zinc will ever be high enough for people to want to melt pennies for it.

I can understand the anticash thing too.
I'm just pointing out that Al is a whiny hypocrite baby over it.
My old buddy Ron, a real libertarian/anti-authoritarian/what have you, also despises not using cash.
He has no bank account, will take no job that isn't paid in cash, and will not use credit cards. It makes his life a lot harder, but he's a believer and he does it.
Al, on the other hand, is not willing to go without the benefits that come from this society he loves to shit on.

Yes.

meh... they've been gone for at least a decade here. Nobody misses them.

but why would you want to get a paper cheque? that's just another line up to sit through at the bank.

I mean, I kinda get the annoyance over purchase tracking. Or would if I cared about anybody knowing how many times I bought McDonald's this month or what brand kitty litter I order off of amazon... The only two things I'm almost certain to use cash on are transit and pot shop visits.

don't tell him about the RF chips embedded in everything bigger than a $20 bill!!!

Oh, don't get me wrong. I hated getting a paper check before they had my DD set up. Hated driving all the way to downtown Miami just to get a check.
But I could. If for some ungodly reason I wanted to.

We can force people off the penny without blinking, but God forbid we get rid of the paper dollar in favor of the Sacajawea or the Susan B. Anthony.
We've got enough minted and sitting in warehouses to make the change.
People just whined. Funny how we could "tough shit" any penny-whiners, but not the dollar-whiners.

You just know AI doesn't have a bank account and probably cashes his paper cheque either at a cheque cashing place or, more likely, at the coffee truck.

Most of my employees took theirs to Publix, actually. I dunno what Al's cornpone equivalent woukd be.

I don't have an actual bank account, so if I get a paper check I cash it through my debit card app which takes $5 of it and deposits the rest into said prepaid debit account.
All the banks around here charge $5 minimum to cash a check under $200, so I might as well use the prepaid card app since that's where the money's going anyway.

the most annoying thing about using debit here is that a lot of smaller shops will charge you the 25 cents that the bank charges them.

I don't think I've even seen a cheque for nearly a decade.
My bank account costs me around $15/month, but it's unlimited transactions/transfers and I can pay all of my bills through it.

When I was working construction we got paid by e-transfer. Saved time and the boss could track it all for the taxes he did report to keep up appearances with Revenue Canada

My cousin pays me by check. I maintain his Facebook page and website for his business. He's kind of old fashioned that way. I told him if he wants to save time I could give him my deposit number and all that and he could just do it over the internet, but he insists on paper checks.

No-one did the "Oh my God, they killed Penny!!" gag yet?

Guys.

This will also make Big Bang Theory rewatches a bit darker.

that's a pain. I like etransfers... all it takes is an email addy to set up in about three steps. I log in to my online, select the destination, they get a notification, done.
There are some security measures in case of a mistake, but I've never had to use'em.

I actually like CashApp quite a bit. Payment is instant, and I can instantly transfer it to my own debit card account for pennies. All it takes is a username and you're golden.