The end of the U.S. penny just turned loose change into serious money.
After the final one-cent coins minted in late 2025 sold at auction for more than $16 million, collectors and casual savers alike are scrambling to see whether the pennies in their pockets might be hiding similar value.
Rare pennies sell for $16.7 million
Shortly after the U.S. Mint halted production of the penny in November 2025, it held an auction to sell the final one-cent coins it ever made. They sold 232 sets of three pennies each, netting a whopping $16.76 million after four hours of contentious bidding.
The last three pennies to come out of the Mint sold for $800,000 alone.
Director of numismatic Americana at Stack’s Bowers John Kraljevich was awestruck by the spectacle.
“I’ve been going to coin auctions for 40 years, and I can tell you, I’ve never seen anything like this, because there’s never been anything like this,” he said, according to AP News.
Trump moved to end penny production after hearing that each cost more than double its worth to create. This quickly led to a penny shortage that had retailers scrambling to figure out how to handle cash transactions.
Many decided to round totals to the nearest nickel, which caused problems when some customers were charged more than their orders were priced.
Those pennies you’re giving to desperate cashiers, however, could be worth much more than the price of your thoughts.
How to spot a rare penny
The U.S. mint nabbed those final pennies specifically to auction them off, so you’re extremely unlikely ever to spot one in circulation. Just in case, however, we’ll tell you how to spot one, as well as a couple of other rare one-cent coins that could still be out there.
These are the markers of some of the most valuable pennies:
- An omega symbol (Ω) on a 2025 penny to the left of Lincoln’s shoulder.
- An “S” symbol combined with certain dates, such as 1931 or 2021, indicating that they were cast at the San Francisco Mint.
- “V.D.B.” on the back. These are the initials of Victor David Brenner, designer of the Lincoln cent.
- 1922 pennies without a “D” symbol, called “plain cents.”
- Not sticking to magnets. Common pennies are made with steel, but pure copper ones could be worth up to $100,000.
- Sticking to magnets but it reads “1944.” One of these pennies, mistakenly minted with steel, went for $408,000 in 2021.
Needless to say, coin collectors are having a moment.
“People with penny collections after years of getting called boring by the masses,” wrote @Underratedtur on X over a LeBron gif.
“Going to put my change collection to WORK,” said @QueenJDE.
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