November 16, 2025
Loose change, looser tempers
Pennies Are Trash Now
America ditched the penny—comments melt down, shops hoard, engineers eye a zinc jackpot
TLDR: The U.S. stopped minting pennies with no clear plan for billions already in circulation. Commenters split between mocking the article’s tone, warning that shops are hoarding coins as distribution slows, and joking about engineers plotting uses for a mountain of zinc—making everyday change a sudden national drama.
America just quit the penny, effective immediately, and the internet is rattling its coin jars. The article’s snarky tone sparked a mini flame war, with one reader calling it “way too much spite” while others cheered the brutal honesty about a coin that costs more than it’s worth to make. Meanwhile, link warriors dropped receipts like this archive and reminded everyone: there’s no plan for the roughly 300 billion pennies already out there.
On the ground, the drama escalated: one commenter pointed to Marketplace, saying pennies are suddenly “treasure” because regional branches of the Federal Reserve (the central bank’s distribution hubs) aren’t keeping shops stocked. Cue reports of businesses hoarding coins and exact-change panic at registers. Engineers turned it into a meme: what do we do with “six thousand metric tons of zinc”? The replies ranged from backyard battery fantasies to “turn them into gutters.” A materials nerd wondered: if it costs about 4 cents to mint 1, why not plastic—or heck, 3D-print your own? Others joked that Coinstar will become a retirement fund and souvenir penny machines are now historical artifacts. And yes, the “just round to the nearest nickel” crowd showed up, loudly.
Key Points
- •The United States has stopped minting pennies effective immediately, per a U.S. Mint announcement.
- •The U.S. Mint estimates approximately 300 billion pennies are currently in circulation.
- •No official plan has been announced for handling existing pennies after minting stops.
- •Producing a penny cost more than three cents, and pennies comprised about half of U.S. coin output despite limited use in commerce.
- •The article argues the secretary of the Treasury has authority under 31 U.S.C. §5111 to halt penny minting without a new act of Congress.