What Next | Daily News and Analysis Who Killed the Penny? She Did.
10 snips
Nov 20, 2025 In this discussion, Caity Weaver, a culture writer at The Atlantic, explores the surprising decision to stop minting pennies. She delves into the 'perpetual penny paradox,' revealing how production costs vastly outweigh their value. Caity outlines the legal pathways that allowed the Treasury to make this decision and compares it to Canada’s effective penny phase-out strategy. She even speculates on the future of other coins and questions what a cashless society means for our beloved change.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Writer's Guilty Claim To Penny's Demise
- Caity Weaver joked she might have 'killed the penny' after writing a piece arguing it should die.
- She described her guilty, amused reaction when the Treasury announced it would stop minting pennies.
Perpetual Penny Paradox
- The U.S. Mint made billions of pennies that people took as change but rarely spent.
- This 'perpetual penny paradox' forced the Mint to keep producing coins nobody used while losing money.
Emotional Attachment To Pennies
- Listeners shared emotional attachments, invoking phrases like 'pennies from heaven' when asked about the coin.
- Caity found some people still cited children's preference for colored coins as a reason to keep pennies.