New York Times - The American penny died on Wednesday in Philadelphia. It was 232.
The cause was irrelevance and expensiveness, the Treasury Department said.
Nothing could be bought any more with a penny, not even penny candy. Moreover, the cost to mint the penny had risen to more than 3 cents, a financial absurdity that doomed the coin.
The final pennies were minted on Wednesday afternoon in Philadelphia. Top Treasury officials were on hand for its final journey. No last words were recorded....
Even after death, the penny will not vanish for a while longer. There are some 250 billion pennies in circulation and they will be out there, gathering dust, or maybe, very, very rarely, being used to help pay for something. As the last pennies slowly disappear, businesses will have no choice but to round transactions to the nearest nickel when dealing with cash.
With the penny’s demise, coin enthusiasts’ worried eyes now turn toward its longtime associate, the nickel. Its purchasing power has also shrunk to nearly nothing, and it costs more than a dime to make.
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