Penny (United States coin)

 

The penny, officially known as the cent, is a coin in the United States representing one-hundredth of a dollar. It has been the lowest face-value physical unit of U.S. currency since the abolition of the half-cent in 1857 (the abstract mill, which has never been minted, equal to a tenth of a cent, continues to see limited use in the fields of taxation and finance).

The U.S. Mint's official name for the coin is "cent" and the U.S. Treasury's official name is "one cent piece". The colloquial term penny derives from the British coin of the same name, which occupies a similar place in the British system. Pennies is the plural form (not to be confused with pence, which refers to the unit of currency).

The first U.S. cent was produced in 1787, and the cent has been issued primarily as a copper or copper-plated coin throughout its history. In 1792, Congress established the United States Mint, which began producing coins. In the same year, the Coinage Act of 1792 mandated that the penny be valued at one hundredth part of a dollar and contain precisely eleven penny-weights of copper. In March of 1793, the newly established Mint in Philadelphia distributed the first set of circulating U.S. currency – 11,178 copper cents.

The penny was issued in its current form as the Lincoln cent, with its obverse featuring the profile of President Abraham Lincoln since 1909, the centennial of his birth. From 1959 (the sesquicentennial of Lincoln's birth) to 2008, the reverse featured the Lincoln Memorial. Four different reverse designs in 2009 honored Lincoln's 200th birthday and a new, "permanent" reverse – the Union Shield – was introduced in 2010. The coin is 0.75 inches (19.05 mm) in diameter and 0.0598 inches (1.52 mm) in thickness. The current copper-plated zinc cent issued since 1982 weighs 2.5 grams, while the previous 95% copper cent still found in circulation weighed 3.11 g (see further below).

In the early 2010s, the price of metal used to make pennies rose to a noticeable cost to the Mint which peaked at more than 2¢, a negative seigniorage, for the 1¢ face-value coin. This pushed the Mint to again look for alternative metals for the coin. Due to inflation, a single penny has lost virtually all its purchasing power. Debate mounted about eliminating the coin, which was viewed as a burden to businesses, banks, government (especially mints) and the public in general; one survey found that two percent of Americans throw pennies in the trash. On November 12, 2025, the Mint halted the production of pennies for circulation, largely due to cost. The penny has not been eliminated, as only an act of Congress can abolish a currency. The penny continues to circulate and remains legal tender, and is still minted for collectors and historic purposes.