<description>In November, the U.S. stopped production of the humble penny after 232 years in circulation. On today’s show, a former U.S. Mint director shares the fiscal math that doomed the penny, and an artist pay tribute to this American icon. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;View more of &lt;a href="https://robertwechsler.com/"target="_blank" &gt;Robert Wechsler’s artwork here&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Related episodes: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/26/1151831868/whats-the-deal-with-the-platinum-coin"target="_blank" &gt;What’s the deal with the platinum coin?&lt;/a&gt;  &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;em&gt;For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="http://plus.npr.org/"target="_blank" &gt;&lt;em&gt;plus.npr.org&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. Fact-checking by Corey Bridges. Music by &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="https://dropelectric.bandcamp.com/"target="_blank" &gt;&lt;em&gt;Drop Electric&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;. Find us: &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@planetmoney"target="_blank" &gt;&lt;em&gt;TikTok&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/planetmoney/"target="_blank" &gt;&lt;em&gt;Instagram&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.facebook.com/planetmoney"target="_blank" &gt;&lt;em&gt;Facebook&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.npr.org/newsletter/money"target="_blank" &gt;&lt;em&gt;Newsletter&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;.  &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Learn more about sponsor message choices: &lt;a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices"&gt;podcastchoices.com/adchoices&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy"&gt;NPR Privacy Policy&lt;/a&gt;</description>

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Take a penny, leave a penny, get rid of the penny

DEC 8, 20259 MIN
The Indicator from Planet Money

Take a penny, leave a penny, get rid of the penny

DEC 8, 20259 MIN

Description

In November, the U.S. stopped production of the humble penny after 232 years in circulation. On today’s show, a former U.S. Mint director shares the fiscal math that doomed the penny, and an artist pay tribute to this American icon. 

View more of Robert Wechsler’s artwork here.

Related episodes: 
What’s the deal with the platinum coin?  

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Corey Bridges. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.  

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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