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U.S. To End Penny Circulation October 1st, 2025
Essex Tribune Gazette Times, Tuesday, 12 Nov 2024

get rid of the penny - take penny out of circulation [Washington, D.C.] Bowing to growing public pressure and the gradual but dramatic adoption of the popular grassroots PennyFreeBiz movement by so many merchants and retailers, the ubiquitous Penny will cease to be circulated by the U.S.Mint on October 1st, 2025.

As in other currency changes in the past, the government will require all pennies to be turned into banks for exchange to other currency by a deadline date (this time October 1st, 2025). It is anticipated that due to both coin exchanges and the actions of coin collectors, it is very likely there will not be a penny to be had anywhere except through coin dealers ... yada yada yada ...
This is a bogus newspaper article ... so far!

AMERICANS .. STOP USING THE PENNY!

Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and many others have discontinued the use of their penny ... The United States and Great Britain have to be next .. Right?
get rid of the penny
   Coming to the end of an era...
 
PennyFreeBiz.com© is a grassroots effort for retailers and merchants all over the US to, at the very least, stop the using of pennies in their businesses. Merchants will not have any pennies in their cash draw or on their counter!

The 'Cent' coin (aka the Penny or one cent piece or 1¢) made sense for more than two hundred years, but we believe, no longer. Depending on costs of raw metal, smelting, forming (including blanking, annealing, upsetting, striking and inspecting) then counting, bagging and distributing the penny, costs our US Mint (According to the U.S. Treasury in 2014) fluctuates somewhere between 1.83¢ and 5.21¢ (Post Pandemic) maybe perhaps as much as 6.75¢ to make each penny. Heck, the nickel costs almost 13¢ to make. System wide cost for merchants to account for each penny is absurdly expensive ... far more than the penny is worth to us merchants.

Next, add in the new global warming issues of carbon footprint to mine, smelter and produce the metal and .. AND .. then finally, add in the fact that roughly half of all minted pennies are in jars, drawers, piggy banks, penny jewelry, pop art, decorations*1 and the like. This means the government is minting 2 pennies (~ .05¢) to keep 1¢ in circulation. Maybe you will arrive at the same point we are at on this website.

By most arguements, the quarter today has less purchasing power than the penny did in 1940.
[ Consumer Price Index ]
We believe it is time to end the arguably senseless use of this soon to be obsolete coin. Since the government can't seem to legislate the removal of pennies from circulation, it is time that retailers and merchants take up the challenge and start the process of weaning our economy of at least this coin. Members, may at their discretion, take this further to remove nickels, dimes, quarters and perhaps the half dollar coins. There are retailers out there who have no coins in their change drawer at all, their smallest change denomination is the dollar.

Members of PennyFreeBiz.com can be merchants, retailers, hotels, restaurants, point of sale software companies and others. Members may continue to price merchandise to the penny, but pledge to ...
  • Remove, at the very minimum, pennies from their cash drawer(s)
  • Round all cash transaction totals (after adding sales tax) to a denomination other than penny (example: nickel)
  • Not give any pennies as change.
 
U.S. Penny History
The penny has been around since 1787. It was the fruit of the efforts of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in their strong desire to produce a stable currency for this fledgling nation. Since its first minting by a private mint and, 5 years later in 1792, by the newly formed US Mint, over 300 billion (~552,000 tons) have been minted in more than 10 different designs over the past 237 years.

The penny was first minted out of 100% pure copper. It's metal composition changed in the mid 1800s to 88% copper and 12% nickel and again after other changes that included the use of bronze and tin, to ultimately today's, 2008's, composition of 97.5% percent zinc and 2.5% percent copper.

> > > more history

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In the instance of a penny, cash transaction totals (after tax) ending with ".x1" or ".x2" will be rounded down to ".x0" and all the rest will be rounded up to ".x5". Accepting pennies in trade as payment is optional and up to the individual merchant member.
 
 
 
More than RAW w/Tax Price
  
 
Equal To RAW w/Tax Price
  
 
Less than RAW w/Tax Price
Come on folks.. this just does not make any cents. We got rid of the 1/2 cent back in 1857.. Getting rid of the 1 cent coin is way, WAY past due. The penny has become a social and cultural anachronism. If our friends in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a dozen other countries can stop the use of their pennies, why can't we? Then we leave England as the last hold out to stop using the penny.

Please support those merchants and retailers that have taken this action. Look who has joined the movement.
 
*1 It is estimated that 80 to perhaps 260 million pennies ($800,000-$2.6 million) were taken out of circulation in the last 5 years by ..
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