How this instrument works
Penny is the everyday nickname for the one-cent coin; its official name under US law is cent, from the Latin centum, hundred. The nickname likely followed British usage, since American colonists carried the word over from the British penny even after the US adopted its own decimal currency in 1792 — Americans call the coin a penny in conversation, while the US Mint's own legal tender statute, 31 U.S. Code §5112, calls it a one-cent coin.
The 1909 Lincoln cent was the first US coin ever to carry the portrait of an actual historical person rather than an allegorical figure like Liberty — a break with more than a century of precedent, made specifically to mark the hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Designer Victor David Brenner's initials on the earliest 1909 pennies caused enough public controversy that the Mint quickly removed them, creating one of the most sought-after cents in American coin collecting.
On 12 November 2025 the US Mint held a ceremonial final strike of the circulating penny at its Philadelphia facility, ending 232 years of production. The decision followed years of the coin costing more to make than it was worth — 3.69 cents to produce and distribute a single penny in fiscal year 2024 alone, up from about 1.7 cents a decade earlier — and the Mint projected roughly $56 million in annual savings once new penny production stopped.
The penny remains legal tender and usable indefinitely; only new production has ended. An estimated quarter of a trillion pennies — some 250 billion coins — remain in circulation or sitting in jars, drawers and piggy banks across the country, and cash transactions are expected to round to the nearest five cents as the coin gradually grows scarce, while card and electronic payments continue to settle in exact cents as before.
- Enter a count into the Pennies field — 250 is preloaded to show the ×0.01 factor at work.
- US dollars updates instantly, always your penny count divided by exactly 100.
- To reverse it, multiply a dollar figure by 100 to see how many pennies it represents.
- A standard bank roll holds 50 pennies; enter 50 to confirm it equals exactly $0.50.
Worked example — a jar of 250 loose pennies
Someone finally empties a jar of loose change and counts out exactly 250 pennies before heading to a coin-counting kiosk at the grocery store. Entering 250 into Pennies returns 2.5 in US dollars — the amount the kiosk should credit before deducting any counting fee, and a useful check against the machine's printed receipt before the change is redeemed for a voucher or cash.
The same ×0.01 factor scales to any count: 7.5 pennies, a fractional value that only makes sense as an average across a large batch, converts to $0.075, and a single penny converts to exactly $0.01. Multiply 2.5 back by 100 and the count returns to 250 pennies precisely, matching the jar's original count.
Questions
How many pennies make a dollar?
Exactly 100. A penny is worth one cent, and a cent is legally defined as one-hundredth of a dollar, so a hundred pennies have always summed to $1.00 — a relationship untouched by the coin's 2025 discontinuation, since only new production stopped, not the coin's legal value.
Is the penny still legal tender after production ended?
Yes. The US Mint struck its final circulating penny on 12 November 2025, but every penny already in circulation remains valid currency indefinitely, the way discontinued coins and older bill designs have always stayed spendable. Businesses can still accept and give pennies in change for as long as supplies last.
Why did the US stop making pennies?
Cost. By fiscal year 2024, the Mint spent 3.69 cents to produce and distribute a single one-cent coin — nearly four times its face value — up from 1.3 cents a decade earlier, driven mainly by rising zinc and copper prices. Ending penny production was projected to save the Mint roughly $56 million a year in material costs alone.
Whose portrait is on the penny, and why?
Abraham Lincoln's, since 1909, when the Mint marked the hundredth anniversary of his birth by making him the first real historical figure ever depicted on a circulating US coin — every coin before it had used an allegorical design like Liberty. The penny has kept Lincoln's portrait through several reverse-side redesigns since then.
Will prices still be calculated to the exact cent without new pennies?
Electronic and card payments will, since those settle to the exact cent regardless of coin supply. Cash transactions are expected to round to the nearest five cents as pennies become scarce in circulation, a rounding practice several other countries adopted years after phasing out their own smallest coins.
How many pennies are in a standard bank roll?
50 pennies, worth exactly $0.50 — the same roll size used for dimes, even though a penny roll is worth ten times less, because both coins are wrapped by coin count rather than by value.