Collectors paid a pretty penny to get their hands to get the very last minted pennies.
Stack’s Bowers Galleries, a specialized coin auction site, said it sold 232 three-coin sets featuring some of the final pennies ever struck for a grand total of $16.76 million.
These coins aren’t like the ones stuck between your couch cushions or floating around in a junk drawer. One coin was struck at the Philadelphia Mint, one was struck at the Denver Mint, and the final coin was a special 24-karat gold penny. Each of the final pennies also bears a small “Ω,” the Greek letter of Omega, further signifying the end of an era that stretches back to the establishment of the US Mint in 1792.
According to the auction site, the roughly $17 million is a record for special coins sold on behalf of the United States Mint.
“They captured the public imagination like few rare coins we’ve ever handled,” Stack’s Bowers Galleries President Brian Kendrella said in a statement. “Even our staff of expert numismatists, who see the world’s most famous and valuable rare coins day in and day out, were excited by the chance to handle the very last pennies struck before the suspension of circulating production.”
In February, President Donald Trump announced that he had instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt production of new pennies. For decades, leaders of both major political parties had talked about killing the single-cent coin due to the increasing cost of production. The US Mint reported losing over $85 million on penny production in FY 2024.
It was unclear whether Trump had the authority to unilaterally eliminate the penny, but ultimately, the administration proceeded with its plans. A 2024 New York Times Magazine report popularized the legal theory that a section of the US Code gave the Secretary of the Treasury the power to effectively discontinue the penny.
In May, the US Mint made its final order of penny blanks. By November, the final US penny was struck in a ceremonial process aided by Treasurer of the United States Brandon Beach.
Fittingly, the final penny auction was broken down into 232 lots, one for each year of the coin’s existence. The final lot “included the very last circulating penny intended for issuance struck at Philadelphia and Denver” in addition to the canceled dies used to strike the final series of coins.
Set 232 sold for $800,000, or 16 million nickels.
