Coin collecting was one of my childhood hobbies.
I collected historical coins of all denominations: Morgan and Eisenhower silver dollars, Buffalo nickels, and Mercury dimes.
And yes, pennies, too.
I’m not an active collector anymore, but coins still interest me. This is why I note the passing of the US penny with mixed feelings. The US Mint has confirmed that it will begin phasing out the penny after 2026. Existing pennies will remain legal tender for the foreseeable future. But the heyday of the one-cent coin is clearly behind us.
Perhaps I saw this coming, even when I was collecting coins as a kid in the late 1970s and early 1980s. That was, after all, an era of high inflation. As a kid, I always picked up a stray penny found on a sidewalk, but there was no sense of having hit the jackpot. As a kid of that era, found wealth began with the quarter.
Moreover, this isn’t the first time that US currency has been phased out or changed in my lifetime. Almost all currency has undergone design changes since I was born. Throughout my life, I’ve seen the two-dollar bill and the one-dollar coin revived, discontinued, and revived again. At present, the Kennedy half-dollar seems poised to make a genuine comeback.
But the penny? Maybe we can live without it. As a collector I hoarded wheat pennies and Indian head pennies. Few of them were worth any real money, according to the 1980 Whitman coin value guide that served as my bible.
Some casual research has shown me that historical pennies have even less relative value than they did 45 years ago. The childhood coin collector in me, that kid from 1980, will miss the penny. But the penny’s fate was sealed even then.
-ET