Last Pennies Minted in the U.S. Sell for $16.7 Million at Auction

The last pennies to be minted in the U.S. sold for over $16 million in an auction.

Auction company Stack’s Bowers Galleries in California announced in a press release that it garnered a total of $16.76 million from a special auction of the pennies sold on behalf of the United States Mint on Friday, Dec. 12.

Among the auction were 232 sets of three coins that each featured a 2025 penny, a 24-karat gold penny struck from the Philadelphia Mint and a 2025-D penny struck from the Denver Mint, the auction company said.

The coins were particularly special as they featured a small marking of the final Greek letter Omega, which signified “their role as the capstone to a two-centuries-long legacy that first began in 1793 with the Chain Cent,” the release said.

The auction house noted that the pennies in particular garnered “unprecedented levels of collector interest,” which slightly delayed the auction and led to “nearly four hours of competitive bidding” among coin collectors.

Each of these sets sold for an average of $72,000 while 17 lots sold for more than $100,000 each. The most expensive sets were the first, which was sold for $200,000 and the final one — Set #232 — which sold for a whopping $800,000.

The final set, which included the “very last circulating penny intended for issuance struck at Philadelphia and Denver,” the final Omega penny in gold and three sets of “canceled dies used to strike this historic series,”  took the top price during the auction.

Stack’s Bowers Galleries noted that the final set ranks as the “most valuable modern U.S.” currency set sold after surpassing the previous record held by a Space Flown 24-karat Gold Sacagawea dollars, which sold for $550,000 in September 2025.

“It’s an extraordinary honor to again be selected to partner with the United States Mint to offer exciting numismatic rarities to the collecting public,” Stack’s Bowers Galleries President Brian Kendrella said in a press release.

“They captured the public imagination like few rare coins we’ve ever handled. Even our staff of expert numismatists, who see the world’s most famous and valuable rare coins day in and day out, were excited by the chance to handle the very last pennies struck before the suspension of circulating production,” he added.

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The auction came exactly one month after the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia concluded its minting of the penny. President Donald Trump ordered the coin to be discontinued after it became more costly to produce than what it is worth.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump wrote in a post in February, according to NBC News. “This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the U.S. Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”

The penny is the first coin to be discontinued since the half-cent in 1857, according to the AP.