Pennies-a-Plenty

Reports of cent shortages around the country abound with dwindling supplies of the coin in retail channels months after the U.S. Mint struck the last 1-cent coins in November 2025. Meanwhile, millions of Americans wonder about the values of their now-obsolete Lincoln cents that reside unspent in change jars, dressers, and piggy banks from sea to shining sea. “It seems that some businesses are rounding up or down and claiming there is a ‘penny’ shortage, but we haven’t seen that to be true,” remarks Andy Skrabalak of Angel Dee’s Coins and Collectibles in Virginia. Charmy Harker, the California coin dealer widely known as “The Penny Lady,” says, “There are still billions of pennies in circulation, not to mention all those that are accumulated in jars, buckets, bottles, bags, etc…I believe [these coins] will start to be distributed back into circulation once folks discover that most of those pennies are worth only a few cents each.” Nevertheless, the penny is enjoying its day in the sun. “Banks have been selling out of 2025 rolls of pennies,” she says. “With all this publicity, how can folks not be engaged or interested in U.S. pennies?”