Why is the penny going extinct?
That was until the federal government decided to take the penny out of circulation in the 2012 federal budget, following a finance committee study that deemed the coin too expensive to produce and no longer necessary.
There are about 130 billion pennies currently in circulation.
The U.S. penny is safe -- for now. According to the U.S. Mint, there are no plans to discontinue the penny, and it would require congressional approval to do so. But local coin collectors think the process of removing the coin will start within the next couple of years.
Most of the time, a penny is worth just one cent, but in the case of the 10 most valuable pennies, they can be worth thousands or even millions of dollars.
The thing is, if we got over the hate and pooled all the coins in our homes, well, we'd have a pretty penny in hand. The U.S. government reported in 2016 that an estimated $62 million in pennies are lost every year in circulation, according to Bloomberg.
Since most of these copper pennies are only 95% copper (and 5% zinc), technically they are considered brass in recycling terms.
What is this? The oldest penny in the world is the Birch Cent of 1792. The original was sold in 2015 to Kevin Lipton, a Beverly Hills rare coin dealer, for $2.6M. It was the most amount of money ever spent on a one-cent piece at auction.
1946 San Francisco Mint Wheat Penny Value
More than 198,000,000 wheat pennies were produced in San Francisco in 1946, making them the most rare mint of the year.
One billion pennies' worth, to be exact. Proudly Pennies is a student-led fundraising initiative to raise one billion pennies, which translates to $10 million by 2013. Efforts will involve all of UC's nearly 40,000 students, as well as alumni, parents, members of the community, corporations and foundations.
- 1943 Bronze Lincoln. (Image: Heritage Auctions, HA.com) ...
- 1969-S Doubled Die Obverse. ...
- 1992 Close AM Reverse. ...
- 1972 Doubled Die Obverse. ...
- 1995 Doubled Die Obverse. ...
- 1999 Wide AM Reverse. ...
- 1983 Double Die Reverse.
Is a penny worth more than 1 cent?
4 It contains about 2.95 grams of copper, and there are 453.59 grams in a pound. 5 The price of copper on Dec. 10, 2019, was $2.75 a pound. 6 That meant the copper in each penny was worth about 1.7 cents.
In September 2012, Legend Numismatics of Lincroft, New Jersey has announced that collector Bob R. Simpson, co-chairman of the Texas Rangers baseball club, paid $1 million for the finest known 1943-S Lincoln Wheat cent on a bronze planchet.
So, your best option is to keep those copper pennies until they get rid of the penny, and sell them then. It will be a nice way to make so money! It might seem not worth it now, but in 2026 you will smile upon the day you started to save copper pennies! Thank you for reading, and good luck coin roll hunting!
Lincoln pennies that were minted between 1959 and 1982 tend to be worth more since they are almost 100 percent copper, rather than an alloy.
4 It contains about 2.95 grams of copper, and there are 453.59 grams in a pound. 5 The price of copper on Dec. 10, 2019, was $2.75 a pound. 6 That meant the copper in each penny was worth about 1.7 cents.
If there were no pennies, stores and restaurants would round up to the nearest nickel. This means consumers would end up paying $0.55 for something that should cost only $0.51.
Environmental Problems
Since 1982, the U.S. Mint has made pennies with more than 97 percent zinc and 3 percent copper. The mining of these materials releases toxins into the environment, primarily through waste water.
