They Lost the Penny—But Coin Collectors See Its End as the Start of a Digital Revolution

The penny's dead. Long live the token.

Traditional coin collecting just got a brutal reality check—the physical penny is being phased out. But for a growing faction of collectors, this isn't an end. It's the ultimate signal to go digital.

From Pocket Change to Digital Ledgers

Why hunt for a 1909-S VDB Lincoln in a roll of coins when you can mint a unique digital asset in seconds? The logic is spreading. Numismatists are bypassing dusty albums for blockchain explorers, trading historical scarcity for programmable rarity.

It cuts out the middleman—no more grading services taking a cut, no auction houses with hefty fees. Your collection lives in a wallet you control, verifiable by anyone, anywhere. Try doing that with a box of wheat pennies.

The New Collectibles Aren't Coins—They're Code

The action has shifted. Forums once debating mint marks now buzz about minting contracts and token standards. The thrill of the hunt is still there; it's just migrated from bank rolls to decentralized marketplaces. Rarity is no longer an accident of production—it's written into the smart contract.

Some call it speculative mania. Collectors call it evolution. After all, hoarding metal discs because a government says they have value is its own kind of faith-based finance—just ask anyone who's tried to spend a Confederate half-dollar lately.

One cynical Wall Street veteran quipped, 'They're just trading one form of sentimental value for another, but at least the new one has an API.'

The penny's demise isn't a loss for collectors. It's a wake-up call. The future of collecting isn't in your pocket. It's on the chain.

Key Takeaways

• "Coin roll hunters" are having a hard time getting rolls of pennies to search through now that the Mint is no longer making the coin.
• Many coin collectors hope the public discourse on the penny will inspire more people to take up the hobby.

Ryan Quinlan belongs to five banks, but he can’t he get withdrawals in the denomination he wants? Why? Because, he says, he wants pennies by the thousands.

For years, Quinlan has picked up boxes—usually containing 50 rolls, or 2,500 pennies—for “coin roll hunting,” in which he roots for rare finds like coins with wheat embossings on the back or that look like they were stamped twice. Unfortunately, it's been harder to source sealed cylinders packed with pennies since the government stopped minting them in November. 

“I had a good system down," said Quinlan, a 28-year-old software engineer currently living in North Carolina. “Despite that, I’m just not able to get pennies. It is a little sad, but I guess it’s kind of an inevitability.”

Many have lost sight of the penny’s utility in recent years. Americans have generally decided it isn’t worth sorting, carrying or using them, and the government agreed, saying it’s inefficient to spend nearly $3.70 producing each coin with some 300 billion already in circulation. Still, the penny has cultural and historical pull. Hundreds attended a memorial for the coin at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial earlier this month, according to The Washington Post.

But regard for the penny may be greatest among collectors. Coin roll aficionados are saddened that their penny-hunting days appear numbered, and the broader coin community is reflecting on the life cycle of a 232-year-old artifact. Both groups hope the recent public discourse on the coin will inspire a new crowd to start collecting. 

Why This Matters to You

It may be unlikely that 2025 pennies will skyrocket in value. But if you come upon one in good condition, it wouldn't hurt to save it. The effort can't cost you more than one cent: said Charles Morgan, manager of numismatic research and programs at the Professional Coin Grading Service.

This could be a “point of enthusiasm and interest, where people come into the market that maybe weren’t collecting coins before,” said Charles Morgan, manager of numismatic research and programs at the Professional Coin Grading Service, which authenticates and grades coins. 

“They want to hold on to these objects before they disappear,” Morgan said. “At some point, although we can’t really imagine it now, pennies will disappear.”

There's already a sense that 2025 pennies, the last of their kind, may be hard to come by. Fifty-cent rolls are selling on Ebay for $10 to $20. Morgan doesn’t think buyers are getting gouged, but he doesn’t expect their value to rise exponentially in our lifetime either: Circulating coins tend to get dinged or scuffed, he said, though those in sealed rolls or otherwise carefully saved may appreciate.

Nostalgia may make the last edition of collectibles particularly valuable. Some people paid $550 for $25 worth of sealed 2025 pennies, eBay selling data shows. Collectors spent $16.8 million at an auction where 2025 pennies—including a 24 karat Gold coin—were sold in packs of three. The final set, along with the dies used to stamp the pennies, sold for $800,000, according to Stack's Bowers, which ran the auction. (The Mint has said it will continue making “proof strike” pennies designed for collecting.)

Al Drago / Getty Images

Amid the hype, people are taking another look at their pocket change, said Jonathan Aminov, who owns Big Apple Coins, a rare coin shop in Manhattan. He informs callers that pennies dug up from jars and couch cushions are unlikely to be of note "almost on a daily basis," he told Investopedia.

Aminov’s store generally buys 1800s-era coins and rarely acquires modern "Lincoln" cents, and he doesn't expect his store, or other professional collectors, to change their approach.

For the most part, accumulated pennies won’t be worth more than their face value, said Morgan. But stashes started decades ago, say, by seniors may improve your chances of finding something worth more than its face value, he said. Those hunting, he said, can use The Official Red Book: A Guidebook of United States Coins and PCGS’ CoinFacts to identify whether something is rare or valuable.

Tens of thousands have subscribed to Quinlan's Youtube channel, "Quin's Coins." About 99% of the circulated coins Quinlan goes through are unremarkable, but he says sifting through them feels like a treasure hunt, and he plans to slowly go through the 2,500-penny boxes—about a dozen—he has left.

“Once those are gone, that’s probably going to be it for the pennies,” he said. “I’ll just try to MOVE on to other denominations."