Last US pennies could fetch up to $5 million after mint shuts down production: experts

The final US pennies struck this week might be worth a fortune.

Coin experts estimate the last pennies minted Wednesday could sell for as much as $5 million each when they hit the auction block in December, USA Today reported.

US Treasurer Brandon Beach pressed the button at the Philadelphia Mint on Wednesday to stamp out the final pennies after 232 years of production.

The US government first started to mint pennies in 1793, when Philadelphia served as the nation’s capital.

The last five pennies ever minted bear a special omega symbol marking their special status — which will surely get bidders’ tongues wagging when they eventually go up for auction later this year.

“Collectors would go nuts for a modern rarity of business-strike Lincoln cents,” John Feigenbaum, publisher of rare coin price guide Greysheet, told USA Today.

“The demand would be incredible because the item would be a required element of a truly ‘complete set.’”

Feigenbaum, who runs the Professional Numismatists Guild, a nonprofit made up of rare coin experts, put the value between $2 million and $5 million per coin.

Not everyone’s that optimistic.

Mike Fuljenz, president of Universal Coin & Bullion in Beaumont, Texas, told USA Today that he thinks the final penny that was struck could bring up to $1 million.

The second and third final coins might fetch $10,000 and $20,000, he told USA Today.

All auction proceeds will fund Mint operations, with any excess going to the US Treasury.

The Mint produced 232 omega-stamped pennies for the auction — one for each year the penny existed. Three more were made for display at the Treasury and other institutions. The Mint also struck 235 gold pennies, according to Reuters.

President Trump ordered the penny killed off in February after production costs had ballooned to 3.69 cents per coin, nearly four times face value.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump wrote online. “This is so wasteful!”

The move saves taxpayers $56 million a year.

Despite the demise of the penny, Beach said that existing one-cent coins aren’t going anywhere.

“Although today we say goodbye to the copper 1-cent coin, the penny remains legal tender,” Beach told USA Today.

“And we encourage you to use it.”

About 300 billion pennies remain in circulation. The Mint will keep making collector versions in limited quantities.

The shutdown has already caused headaches for retailers. Some stores have started rounding cash transactions to the nearest nickel.

Kwik Trip, a Midwest convenience chain, decided to round down where pennies ran out — a policy that’ll cost the company millions annually.

Four states and major cities including New York and Philadelphia require merchants to provide exact change, creating legal complications.

The National Association of Convenience Stores and other retail groups asked Congress for legislation to sort out the mess.

Jeff Lenard, a spokesperson for the association, said the group had pushed for penny elimination for three decades. But he added, “This is not the way we wanted it to go.”

The penny first appeared in 1793. Abraham Lincoln’s profile showed up in 1909 on what would have been his 100th birthday, making it the first US coin to feature a president.