Posted on 10/24/2025 8:35:40 AM PDT by re_tail20
Back in the day, pennies were my main exchange.
Exchange aluminum cans as “penny-change”.
It’s going to be a while
In the last year I have received three wheat pennies and one steel penny
Bull. What does it cost to print a $1 bill? If you ignore differences due to quantities printed, it costs the same to print a $5 bill...or a $20 bill. So, in a way, the Treasury is making huge profits, and the penny is just a loss leader, right?
Stupid fiat currency.
Sign at Kroger self checkout...
The U.S. Treasury has stopped production of pennies, which is now impacting supply.
If using cash for payment, please consider providing exact change.
I guess my many gallon jugs of pennies will be worth something. I seriously have about 15 of them.
I honestly always take them out of my pocket and dump them off because they are not worth carrying around.
I did the math one time and I think it’s $160 in each jug.
I’ll sell you a penny for a nickel.
Wheaties are anout 1% of pennies in circulation., last I checked. Nickels from the ‘40s and ‘60s are pretty common. <>I t still haven’t seen a nickel or dime from 2024 or 2025, and I look. They also seem to be slow-rolling the release of new quarters. There’s no shortage...they’re just sitting on them, as there isn’t much neeed.
I went to the Kroger pharmacy yesterday, and there was a sign asking that those paying in cash to use correct change due to the scarcity of pennies.
All those cans of pennies I have may be worth something for the grandchildren..... or a waste of storage space on the shelf.
East Germany made their lower denominations out of aluminum.
CC
It’s October. The US Treasury stops making pennies every year, when they’ve made the number authorized by legislation.
One problem is high local sales taxes that drive the price paid by the customer to odd numbers. In Minnesota, land of 10,000 taxes, a $9.99 liquor purchase with the added taxes comes up to $11.08 making paying with cash impossible without pennies or rounding up the total price to $11.10.
If they round up to .05 for 3 and 4 and down to .00 at 1 and 2, I don’t have a problem.
I’ve noticed most places just round up in their favor.
Exactly the point I came to make. Retailers will have to adopt pricing that either results in the cost with tax coming to a penny-free amount, or we switch to building the tax cost into the marked price, and let the business sort it with the government.
“ I’ll sell you a penny for a nickel.”
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No joke, if you have a penny made before mid-1982 the value of the metal in it is 3.25 cents. This is why the Treasury changed to copper-coated zinc in 1982 - and now the metal in the “Zincolns” is worth 0.86 cents. https://www.coinflation.com/coins/basemetal_coin_calculator.html
Of course, you can’t melt them down right now, that’s still illegal, but before long that will be permitted (as it is now with silver coinage).
Just to clarify, the Federal fiscal year runs October 1st through September 30th.
Check ebay. 2025 pennies were being sold for several $$$$.
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