The wages of inflation finally killed it. It now costs four cents to make each penny. When I was a kid in the sixties you could still get penny candy. A penny in 1965 had the purchasing power of a dime now, which even in 65 was nothing to write home about. Some people used to give rolls of pennies out at Halloween to trick or treaters, not my favorite type of treat.  Any type of coin being minted now may eventually follow the path of the penny to oblivion unless it is made out of a precious metal. Scrooge McDuck is appalled.
The half cent piece was discontinued in 1857 because of inflation. A half cent then is equivalent to about 17 cents now. If the same reasoning holds, we should get ride of the nickel and dime also.
Hoarding pennies? I’ve been accidentally doing that for years. It was actually covid and the change shortage back then that moved me to nearly 100% credit card use. I cashed in a few of my coin stashes for $200 a while ago, but I’ve got a few more.
I have no problem if it takes 4 cents to make a penny. The government shouldn’t be in the business of improving its bottom line via minting or printing money. Currency’s purpose is to assist the economy. But at this point the penny doesn’t carry value, just accounting precision.
Brian:
Until 1857 foreign silver could be used in the US with values set according to published tables. A lot of that was Mexican, Latin American or even old Spanish, based on the 8 reales = $1US. 1 real was 12 1/2 cents, which required half-cents available to make change. The use of foreign coinage was disallowed in 1857 and the half-cent happily retired. It was not missed.
When I was a kid (in New Zealand) we still used the farthing – a quarter of a penny. I thin it disappeared in the late 1940’s.
Nowadays, we have dispensed with the 1 cent coin, 2 cent coin, 5 cent coin & 10 c. coin.
Don:
It must have been a UK farthing, because when New Zealand began minting its own bronze coinage in 1940, they only had pennies and ha’pennies. I have quite a bit of NZ coinage, including the last predecimal set (1965). I alway thought the NZ half-crown was the handsomest of its denomination in the Empire.
I would say you are correct Tom. In those days, particularly just after the war, there was much UK coinage around, and legal tender of course. There were Aussie shillings & florins too, but NZ currency was worth more than Aussie stuff in those days so had to be careful that an Aussie florin (2 shillings) or 1 shilling piece was not being passed for NZ money – a florin – or two bob – bought a fair bit in those days. 🙂