PHILADELPHIA — After 238 years, a big change happened on Wednesday, well, our change.
The Philadelphia Mint pressed its final circulating penny on Wednesday, bringing an end to the coin’s two-century run, The Associated Press reported.
A penny costs about 4 cents to make, so President Donald Trump instructed the Mint to stop making them.
There are billions of pennies in circulation as of now, the AP reported.
Despite no new ones being made, the penny will still be legal to use, but as they become rarer, retailers may feel the effects.
Businesses said the change was abrupt and that they had no guidance from the federal government to deal with transactions that involved pennies, the AP reported.
“We have been advocating abolition of the penny for 30 years. But this is not the way we wanted it to go,” National Association of Convenience Stores member Jeff Lenard said in October.
Some are rounding prices up or down, while others are rewarding customers who turn in their penny stashes.
By ceasing penny production, the government is expected to save $56 million annually, or about 5.6 billion pennies.
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