End of an Era

Announcement made.

The United States Mint announced that it would cease striking business strike (circulating) Lincoln Cent by the end of 2025.

On November 12, an official ceremony celebrating the end of the denomination after 232 years of production was held in the Philadelphia Mint.

The one cent coin was first authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792 with the first 65 yerars of production as a large coin about the size of a half dollar. The small cent, 19 millimeters in diameter, got its start in 1865 and has continued to date.

Is it true?

As it appears as of the writing of this article, there has been no official announcement that the decision to end the cent has been reversed even though rumors have indicated that the decision may have been reversed. The direction of the decision will likely depend on the demand of commerce to continue minting the coin.

We shall see whether any 2026 cents will be made for commerce. My guess is that the Mint will go back to producing the coin before 2026 is over.

Will we see a value increase?

Think of it this way - they have made billions of cents annually for many years. If they cease to make new coins, nothing remarkable will happen to the some 100-billion coins we have now.

Given that fact, it is unlikely that anything will change in the near future because of the stoppage. Here's why:

In order for a coin to have value, a few things have to ring true. Generally speaking, value is predicated by age, scarcity, and demand. While some FOMO (fear of missing out) collecting has sprouted wings because of a temporary buying frenzy, the overall availability of nearly all modern cents appear to spell out no change to the rather low values of most of the coins issued over the past 65 plus years.

The overall forecast for your wallet? Just hang tight. Let the frenzy cool off, and cent collecting will go back to what it was before the change - except, perhaps, there might not be any more new cents to collect. For that to be certain we just have to wait and see.