Penny pinching: Ramifications of coin’s demise extend beyond nostalgia

Pining for pennies isn't just nostalgic. The cost-saving move also feels like state-sponsored greedflation, writes Huascar Medina. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

After Nov. 12, the penny will no longer be minted as a form of legal tender. The reasons cited included the reported cost to mint a single penny, which is 3.69 cents. Every time the treasury minted a penny, we lost 2.69 cents. In fiscal year 2024, the U.S. Mint produced 3.2 billion pennies. The U.S. Mint reported losing $85.3 million that year in the production of the penny.

Benjamin Franklin, who coined the phrase “a penny saved is a penny earned,” designed the original American penny, known as the Fugio Cent, in 1787. The message on the coin was “Mind Your Business,” and on the reverse side, “We are One” was encircled by a chain of 13 links, representing the original 13 colonies. “We are One” later became the motto “E Pluribus Unum” on the one-cent piece.

The first official one-cent piece was minted early in our nation’s history by the newly established U.S. Mint, located in Philadelphia, in 1793, following the passage of the Coinage Act of 1792. They originally minted over 11,000, and Thomas Jefferson oversaw the U.S. Mint until a director was appointed. The penny is a piece of U.S. history, a symbol of the establishment of our great republic, and to see it disappear so unceremoniously is a cheap way to go out.

The penny is part of popular culture. In 1936, American footwear brand G.H. Bass introduced the Weejun, considered the first penny loafer mass-marketed in the United States. The shoe became known as the “penny loafer” in the 1950s, when college students would tuck a penny into the shoe’s front strap, or “vamp,” as a fashion statement, for good luck, and supposedly as an emergency backup to make phone calls at pay phones. The price of a pay phone in the ’50s ranged from 5 to 10 cents, so a pair of penny loafers wouldn’t get you very far.

I have owned a pair of penny loafers since before I could walk. I’ve been wearing penny loafers for over 40 years. Something else I owned growing up in the 1980s were Penny Racers, miniature toy cars that you pulled back to wind up. They could perform a wheelie when released if a penny was inserted into the slot on their back while racing. The Penny Racer was initially created by the Japanese toy company Takara in 1978 under the Choro-Q brand. It made its U.S debut in 1981. They were marketed as “a different breed of speed.”

It may sound like I’m delving into nostalgia, but the loss of the penny has ramifications that extend beyond my childhood. Wishing wells are littered with the pennies from well-wishers. Wells were seen as sacred and divine gifts. Even modern water fountains have been transformed into wishing wells, an echo of an ancient tradition that spans multiple cultures, where a coin was thrown into them for a wish. In the United States, you could offer a penny in exchange for a wish — any wish you could imagine.

When we run out of pennies or hoard them into oblivion, that well is going to cost you at least a nickel per wish, which brings me to the part that I haven’t seen reported by the media, yet. Are we rounding up or down for the cost of items that are not in increments of 5 cents at businesses? Things will always cost at least 5 cents moving forward. I thought affordability was an issue, and this feels like state-sponsored greedflation.

Huascar Medina Huascar is a poet, writer, and performer who lives in Topeka. Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.