One Cent Day

What the day is

One Cent Day is observed on April 1, marking the smallest coin in American circulation, and a coin whose economics stopped working a long time ago.

Origin and background

For years the penny cost more to produce than it was worth. The exact figure moved with metal prices, but the cost of making and distributing one cent sat consistently above one cent, meaning every coin struck lost money. That is an unusual position for a currency to be in, and it is the argument that eventually settled the question: the United States moved to end penny production in 2025, with the last cents struck that November. Pennies already in circulation remain legal tender.

The coin had quietly changed substance long before. Pennies minted from 1982 onward are not copper but zinc with a thin copper plating, only about two and a half percent copper by weight, a switch made when the copper inside the coin was approaching the value of the coin itself. The wartime exception is better known: in 1943, with copper needed for ammunition, cents were struck in zinc-coated steel, and those are the gray pennies that turn up in old jars.

Other countries went first and supplied the evidence. Australia, New Zealand and Canada all withdrew their smallest coins, Canada most recently in 2012, and in each case cash transactions are rounded to the nearest five cents while card and electronic payments settle exactly. The predicted wave of rounding up against consumers did not appear. Studies after the Canadian withdrawal found the effect on prices negligible, because rounding runs in both directions and most transactions are not cash at all.

The awkward remainder is the nickel, which also costs more than its face value, and by a wider margin.

How to take part

• Check the date on any penny you have. Anything before 1982 is mostly copper.
• Look for a 1943 steel cent, which is gray and sticks to a magnet.
• Notice how shops near you handle rounding on cash.
• Empty the jar. Most banks and many stores will still take the coins.