Brooks: America mints its last penny. What’s the new going rate for our thoughts?

Minnesota Star Tribune ^ | 5/26/25 | Jennifer Brooks

[DallasBiff]

Grandpa Brooks counted his pennies.

He owned a little pharmacy in Chicago and he liked to sift through the till, hunting for interesting coins. Wheat pennies. Indian head pennies. Buffalo nickels. The steel pennies they minted during World War II when America needed its copper for ammunition.

[Honorary Serb]

Keep the penny!

[Brian Griffin]

In Mexico, I haven’t gotten any coin as change that was worth less than 50 centavos(worth less than three red cents).

In Mexico, divide prices by 20 to get a good estimate of the cost in US dollars.

[lee martell]

Your Susan B’s are most likely worth face value.
I seem to recall a layer of controversy when her coin was issued at end of Carter’s term. Oh yes. It was b/c Susan B’s One Dollar coin was near the same size as a Quarter, worth .25 cents. Some ‘Helen Reddy type’ women thought it was demeaning to have Susan B. issued only a ‘miniature dollar coin’ vs a big ol John Kennedy Silver Dollar coin.

[woodbutcher1963]

I still have the Eisenhower dollars my Godmother gave me for my First Communion. She worked in a bank at the time.
So, they are uncirculated. They are nice and big.
They are not worth that much, just sentimental value mostly. The only coins that are worth any money are the Silver Proof coins. I have four sets of all the Proof quarters from about 10 years ago. I have a Bicentennial proof set. It is worth about the same I paid for it back in 1976.

[algore]

I have one of those one hundred trillion dollar notes in my wallet, they are actually worth some money today, I think they I bought it for a few dollars, should have bought a stack.

[SaxxonWoods]

Everybody blathers their mundane thoughts all over the world for free, no need to pay.

[AFreeBird]

Still a penny. So damn many of them sitt’n around in jars and what not. We won’t run out for a long while.

[Tudorfly]

A nickle for your pickle? Likely to be misconstrued.
A dime for your time?

[Cobra64]

Australia eliminated their one-cent and two-cent coins in February 1992. The coins were withdrawn from circulation because their value was very low and the cost of producing them was more than their face value.

[Political Junkie Too]

What’s the new going rate for our thoughts?

A hill of beans?

-PJ

[Verginius Rufus]

From 1793 to 1857 the US Treasury minted a half cent coin.

The Civil War broke out four years after they stopped production of the half cent.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc?

[The Great RJ]

The penny has one function in retail trade, paying the state and local sales tax on cash transactions. In the Peoples Republic of Minnesota Twin Cities metro area a combined state and local sales tax of over 10% is imposed on the retail sales of beer, wine and liquor. That $9.99 bottle of wine rings up at $11.08. No problem with a card payment, but how would one pay or make change with a cash purchase without pennies? I suppose retailers could adjust prices so that the total comes out to the nickel or the various government entities could simply adjust the tax rate upward to accomplish the same result. In either scenario the consumer pays more. I agree the penny’s time has past, but government’s insatiable desire for more taxes makes it too easy to stick consumers with small penny increases in sales taxes.

[Scrambler Bob]

If your thought is 2 cents or less, it rounds to ZERO.

[napscoordinator]

With trump big on “bitcoin”, I’d expect all cash to end sooner than later.

[Albion Wilde]