An America without any cents would make a lot of sense, according to some who work in the monetary sector.

Colorado Springs resident Robert “Bob” Shippee, a retired banker, coin collector and author, can’t believe the financial system’s smallest denomination of currency is still around.

It’s time for the 1-cent piece to be retired, he said.

“I think it would be a very popular decision,” Shippee said. “In comparison to other countries, the United States is far behind the curve, and I think it’s a tiny bit embarrassing it’s taken the U.S. so long to get serious about eliminating the 1-cent coin.

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“These coins are frankly not needed.”

Ceasing U.S. Mint production of the cent and halting distribution in the market is one of many proposals President Donald Trump has floated in recent weeks in his quest to reduce “wasteful spending” and save taxpayers’ money.

The primary driver is that the cost outweighs the worth.

“We’re at a point where 1 cent costs 3.7 cents to make,” said Caroline Turco, assistant curator at The Money Museum, which is housed inside the American Numismatic Association in Colorado Springs.

The independent nonprofit organization was founded in 1891 and federally chartered by Congress in 1912 to promote coins, paper currency, tokens and other numismatic artifacts.

“It won’t be an enormous change in terms of how our economy functions,” Turco said.

Of the $80 trillion worth of American financial interactions last year, one-fortieth was handled in cash, she said.

And only cash transactions would be affected if the 1-cent coin was abolished. Price discrepancies would be handled by either rounding up or down; if an item costs 99 cents, it would be rounded up to $1 for a cash payment but stay at 99 cents for credit, debit and electronic payments. The same goes for an item that costs 92 cents but would be rounded down to 90 cents for cash payments. 

That method has been used in Canada since that country got rid of its cent coin in 2012, Turco noted.

Shippee said industry types believe the effect on consumers of adding or reducing cents while conducting business would be neutral — that the pennies would even out in the end.

The amount of cent coins churned out every year at production facilities in Denver, Philadelphia, San Francisco and West Point, N.Y., has varied but fell to 3 billion in the 2024 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30; in the year 2000, 14 billion were struck.

Still, for the 19th year and with a 20% rise in manufacturing costs, according to the U.S. Mint’s annual 2024 report, the per unit expense for the cent exceeded the face value. The nickel is in the same sinking boat: It costs 13.8 cents to make a 5-cent coin.

The expense to taxpayers in the 2023 fiscal year topped $179 million for the cent, the Trump administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency posted on X last month in arguing for an end to production.

It appears to be unclear just how that would happen, though, Shippee said.

Some believe the move would require approval from Congress; others point to the U.S. Code, the official codification of the general and permanent federal statutes of the United States. 

The congressional document states, “The Secretary of the Treasury shall mint and issue coins in an amount the Secretary decides are necessary to meet the needs of the United States.”

Said Shippee, “That seems to say the Secretary of the Treasury can make a determination that cents are not necessary and no longer need to be issued.” 

Not making the cent coin, which the Mint says contains 2.5% copper and 97.5% zinc, also would free up more supply of zinc, Shippee said. The base metal has become more in demand for use in batteries, construction materials, computers, electric vehicles and numerous other applications. 

Trump is not the first president to raise the idea. President Barack Obama also promoted the discontinuation of the cent piece but did not carry through with it.

The late Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2008, also brought up the topic in 2017, but the penny prevailed.

There could be drawbacks if Trump’s plan to cease circulation comes to fruition.

In the past, residents of Illinois have opposed discontinuing the cent because the state’s famous son, Abraham Lincoln, is depicted on the front of the coin.

But it’s not like the nation’s 16th president would be absent from currency, Shippee pointed out, as Lincoln’s portrait also appears on the front of the $5 bill, and the Lincoln Memorial is pictured on the back.

Another consideration is that an American company could suffer. Among its work, Greeneville, Tenn.-headquartered Artazn manufactures the coin blanks the U.S. Mint uses for cent production, and the loss of the federal contract could affect the company’s business, Shippee said.

Turco believes the loss in nostalgia would be the most costly.

Adults and children love pennies — the British name that is technically incorrect when referring to the U.S. cent but remains a British colonial colloquialism that Americans like to use. They’re fun to throw in fountains along with a wish, save in piggybanks, and find on the ground, especially head-up for good fortune.

The sentimental factor wouldn’t necessarily disappear, Turco said. The popular phrase, “A penny for your thoughts,” is unlikely to be usurped by, “A quarter for your thoughts,” for example.

Even if merchants no longer use cent pieces, they won’t be eradicated. Of the 240 billion pennies in circulation in the U.S., a staggering amount are estimated to be unaccounted for and unused in the marketplace, according to officials.

That means many pennies are sitting in couch cushions or beneath car seats, lying on the pavement, squirreled away in drawers, rolled and stashed, or otherwise missing from sight and mind.

Removal of the cent would not be unprecedented; the United States canceled the half-penny in 1857 because it cost three-quarters of a cent to make, Turco said. Also that year, the size of the 1-cent coin was reduced, and the larger cent became collectible a few decades later, Shippee said.

The U.S. stopped making gold coins in 1933 because of the Great Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s desire to stabilize the value of gold.

Whether the penny would become more valuable is also up for debate.

Most currency that people collect is not in circulation anymore, Turco said. The sheer volume of cent coins means only rare ones that reflect mistakes during production or were issued in limited quantities would continue to be worth anything of note, Shippee said.

There are two concepts of money, Turco said: as a tool that provides the economic basis for commercial transactions, and as an artifact.

“While it will be different, pennies won’t go away,” she said. “They’ll still be present in present time.”

Editor’s note: This article has been clarified to say zinc is a base metal.