Penny (United States coin)

Rare card · No. 47974

The penny, officially "one cent", is a United States coin worth one cent, equal to 1⁄100 of a dollar ($0.01). It has been the lowest face-value coin or banknote of U.S. currency since the abolition of the half-cent coin in 1857. Introduced in 1793, it has only been produced for collectors since 2026. The United States Mint's official name for the coin is "cent" and the U.S. Treasury's official name is "one cent piece". The colloquial term penny derives from the British coin of the same name, which occupies a similar place in the British system. Pennies is the plural form, not to be confused with pence, which refers to the unit of currency. The first U.S. cent was produced in 1787, and the cent has been issued primarily as a copper or copper-plated coin throughout its history. In 1792, Congress established the U.S. Mint, which began producing coins. In the same year, the Coinage Act of 1792 mandated that the penny be valued at one hundredth part of a dollar and contain precisely eleven...

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