Rest in peace to the penny, 1793-2025.

But really, who’s even mourning? After years of losing pennies in couch cushions or stepping over them, it’s safe to say that most of us won’t be missing this tiny nuisance.

The U.S. Mint officially halted production of pennies on Nov. 12, putting an end to a coin that costs more than its worth. But now that the penny is gone, what comes next?

According to the U.S. Mint, each penny cost roughly 3.69 cents to produce. The decision to suspend production of the penny was from the Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, determining that it was no longer “necessary” to meet the needs of the United States.

For students especially, the loss of pennies barely impacts them. In cafeterias, vending machines and after-school food events, most students like me use Apple Pay or debit cards. Even our vending machines, one of coin’s biggest consumers as a whole, takes tap-to-pay. I personally can’t remember the last time I’ve handled cash at a restaurant or a store. And I’m grateful for that as I don’t want to deal with another impatient cashier looking at me to scramble through my pocket change.

In a 2022 survey, the Federal Reserve recorded that approximately 18% of the share of payments using cash declined from 2020 to 2021, largely because people started switching to digital payment methods as COVID-19 caused more people to move their transactions digitally. So, in other words, the penny was irrelevant long before the Mint made its announcement about removing it.

Citizens for Retiring the Penny, a non-partisan organization founded by American physicist and Associate Professor of Physics at MIT Jeff Gore, was created 17 years ago to educate the public on the advantages of retiring the penny. One organization user wrote on Facebook that people often misunderstand rounding, which shows an “irrational fear” about losing the penny.

Still, some people cling on to pennies for more sentimental reasons. Tossing them into fountains, saving them in piggy banks or learning how to save ‘every cent.’ I suppose we’ll learn how to save every nickel now.

We’ll still throw a penny into a fountain for good luck (as seen with Rome’s Trevi Fountain), and shake our piggy bank to see how much we have left, but we’re not going to scramble over change while paying for coffee. For the economy, students and people, losing the penny is more symbolic than anything as it represents how technology is taking over our day-to-day transactions.

But the penny didn’t disappear quietly. Organizations like the Americans for the Common Cents, a lobbying group created in the 1990s, argued that keeping the penny keeps consumer prices down and eliminating it would lead to retailers rounding prices up. For years, coin collectors and zinc lobbyists pushed against eliminating the penny. That pressure is why it took so long to get here. But after years of debate, the penny is now out of circulation.

Rest in peace, penny.

You fulfilled your purpose, but nobody will miss you.