In everyday transactions, a one cent penny is worth exactly its face value. But as any coin collector knows, some pennies are worth more than others. For example, a single mint-condition 1909 Lincoln wheat penny is currently valued at around $21, while an even rarer “Indian Head” penny from 1859 can sell for as much as $986. While it’s unclear how much the very last pennies ever produced are worth, purchasing them at an upcoming auction will undoubtedly cost much more than pocket change.
After 232 years, the United States ceased minting one cent pennies on November 12. While abolishing the penny once and for all will require an act of Congress, it’s unlikely that new coins will ever arrive again. The decision to halt production is years in the making and stems from basic economics. For the past 19 years, it’s simply cost more money to make new pennies than they’re actually worth at face value. Economists estimate the United States lost around $85.3 million on the almost 3.2 billion coins manufactured in 2024 alone. Unless the price of copper craters, it’s safe to say that the era of US penny production is at an end.
To commemorate the occasion, the United States Mint has partnered with Stack’s Bowers Galleries to auction off 232 sets of “Omega” pennies–one for every year of the denomination’s production dating back to 1793. Every lot includes a penny featuring an “Ω” privy mark from both the Denver and Philadelphia Mints, as well as one made with 24-karat gold. The final set will also include the cancelled original die casts used to make the pennies.
“This mintage is more than 2,000 times lower than that of the famous 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln penny and only a fraction of the production quantity for the original 1793 Chain Reverse pennies that started it all,” the auction house explained in its announcement. “Though many thousands of collectors are actively assembling sets of Lincoln pennies at any given time, only 232 will have the opportunity for true completion.”
Live bidding is scheduled to begin on December 11 at 12 p.m. EST. Although some experts have estimated the Omega pennies could sell for anywhere between $2 to $5 million, other coin aficionados aren’t so sure.
“You see, they were made for this purpose. They were made to be rare,” Philadelphia-based numismatist Richard Weaver said earlier this month. “When you see people paying in the millions for coins, they are paying for coins that are 100 or 200 years old, of which only a handful are known to exist and that have survived for so many years without anyone making them for that purpose in 1933 or 1794.”
That said, whoever does ultimately purchase the Omega coins likely already knows the old adage: In for a penny, in for a pound.
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