When a small Michigan bank starts paying a 20% bonus for your loose pennies, you know something big just changed.
Across the country, the U.S. Mint has stopped producing pennies for circulation, and that decision is already rippling from Main Street banks to coin shops and cash registers.
The big question for regular people now is simple: are pennies something to hoard… or something to cash out while banks are still paying a premium?
A Michigan Bank Turns Pennies Into a 20% Bonus
In a report for FOX 47 News, Sarah Poulos explains that Dart Bank in Mason, Michigan, has launched a program called “Copper That Counts.”
Poulos says the bank is paying $6 for every $5 in pennies – a 20% bonus – to anyone who brings them in, with a limit of 25,000 pennies per person per month.
Michelle Carpenter of Dart Bank tells Poulos the idea is to help both residents and local businesses now that the U.S. produced its final batch of pennies in August.
Carpenter says the bank expects circulation to slow over time, and they want to “do everything we can for the community, especially those businesses that are accepting cash,” by helping them keep enough change for as long as possible.
You don’t even have to be a Dart Bank customer.
Carpenter explains that “for every 500 pennies presented, which is a five-dollar value, Dart Bank will pay $6.”
That turns old coffee cans full of change into instant, risk-free profit.
As a pure math play, that’s hard to beat.
Any time a bank offers you a guaranteed 20% return on something sitting in a jar, it’s at least worth a serious look.
Coin Dealers See The End Of An Era
While Dart Bank is dealing with the practical headache of life without new pennies, coin people are thinking in much longer timelines.
On his YouTube channel, Silver Dragons sat down with coin dealer Harry Kraus of Harry’s Coin Shop to talk about the last U.S. penny being minted.
Kraus tells Silver Dragons that the Mint has stopped producing pennies for circulation, though it will still make collector versions in proof and mint sets.
Stores will still accept pennies, he notes, and “it’s still legal tender” – you just “still can’t melt them” under current law.
Kraus and the host both raise a natural follow-up: if the penny is gone, is the nickel next?
Kraus says he “would think so,” pointing out that some businesses are already just rounding to the nearest nickel.
Silver Dragons and his guests also talk about how little you can buy under a dollar today.
From a business standpoint, they admit, handling piles of metal change can feel more like a cost than a benefit.
That’s part of why the penny was doomed: as FOX5 Las Vegas reporter Kim Passoth notes in her piece, it cost about 4 cents to make each 1-cent coin, and President Donald Trump ordered the halt to save taxpayers an estimated $56 million a year.
For coin shops, though, this is pure history.
Collectors are already eyeing 2025 pennies as a future key date, and Kraus says he fully expects some people to start hoarding.
He’s cautious, though.
He reminds Silver Dragons that an estimated 300 billion pennies exist, and most aren’t even in circulation – they’re sitting in jars and drawers already.
The sheer volume is the first thing working against penny “get rich quick” fantasies.
The Copper Question: Pre-1982 Pennies
Where things get more interesting is with older pennies.
Kraus tells Silver Dragons that pre-1982 pennies (really 1981 and earlier to be safe) are made mostly of copper and are now worth more than 3 cents in metal value when copper prices are strong.
Right now, you still can’t legally melt U.S. cents for scrap, but Kraus says if the government ever changes that rule, “there will be a craze” as refiners and individuals try to triple up on their money.
Silver Dragons mentions that this isn’t a new idea.
He remembers entire forums of people hoarding copper pennies back around 2011, when metal prices spiked.
Many of those hoarders spent years stacking heavy buckets only to watch copper prices cool off, and some eventually burned out.
The difference now, he says, is that the penny is actually being discontinued, so the storyline feels more real.
Kraus agrees that if the melt ban is ever lifted, copper pennies would probably be grabbed up the same way people once scrambled to save 90% silver coins after 1965.
But there are trade-offs.
He points out that pennies are heavy, bulky, and take up a lot of room before you reach a “valuable” amount.
Hoarding them is more like slowly building a stash of raw material than stacking shiny silver rounds.
If you’re thinking like a prepper or long-term metals person, a few boxes of sorted pre-’82 pennies might make sense.
If you’re just trying to clear off your dresser, rolling them down to Dart Bank for an instant 20% bonus is a much cleaner play.
What Happens At The Register Now?
While coin dealers debate melt laws and collectors chase last-year dates, regular businesses are stuck in the middle.
In her FOX 47 report, Sarah Poulos talks with Debbie Shattuck, owner of Maple Street Mall, who says lots of customers still insist on paying with cash.
Some are budget-conscious.
Others simply don’t want credit or debit cards.
Shattuck tells Poulos she’s already wondering how exact change will work “when the pennies are no longer available.”
She asks whether stores will round up or round down, and how customers will react either way.
That’s not a small question.
Rounding rules can add up over millions of transactions, and shoppers tend to notice when small differences always seem to favor the business.
Out in Las Vegas, Kim Passoth’s FOX5 segment describes grocery stores posting signs asking customers for pennies and exact change as they adjust.
Coin dealer Christopher Shands of Archangel Coins tells Passoth that dropping the penny will also increase demand for nickels, which are actually more expensive to mint than the old cent.
Shands worries that this might be the start of a bigger shift.
He says we “may look back at this day as the beginning of the end for physical coins and currency,” even though he hopes that isn’t the case.
His concern fits exactly with what Kraus tells Silver Dragons: younger generations already pay with cards, phones, and watches, rarely touching cash at all.
Older buyers might still pull out bills, but the direction of travel is clear.
The death of the penny feels like another small nudge toward a more digital, less tangible money world.
So Should You Hold Or Cash In?
Put all of this together, and the answer isn’t one-size-fits-all.
On the “cash in” side, Dart Bank’s offer that Poulos reports is incredibly straightforward: bring in rolled pennies, walk out with 20% more than face value.
No storage problems, no sorting dates, no waiting on Congress to change melt laws.
If you’ve got random jars of mixed pennies and no interest in coin collecting, it’s hard to argue with taking that deal while it lasts.
On the “hold” side, the case is narrower but still real.
Kraus tells Silver Dragons that pre-’82 copper pennies already have metal value above face, and Shands tells Passoth that high-grade 2025 pennies could become desirable collector pieces.
You could make a reasonable argument for keeping carefully selected coins: older copper cents, error pennies, or pristine rolls of the last-year issues.
That’s more like building a small, focused collection than shoveling every cent you find into long-term storage.
The big trap is thinking that every penny is suddenly a ticket to profit.
With hundreds of billions of coins out there and a lot of legal and practical hurdles still in the way, most modern zinc pennies are unlikely to do much more than buy a piece of candy in value terms – and even that’s becoming a stretch.
For most people, a sensible middle path looks like this:
Sort out the obvious collectors or copper dates if you enjoy it.
Take the rest to the bank while bonus programs, like the one Sarah Poulos covered at Dart Bank, are still running.
And keep paying attention.
If the U.S. ever lifts the melt ban or starts talking about the nickel the way it talked about the penny, this entire debate will fire up all over again – only heavier.
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The article Banks Now Paying 20% Extra for Pennies as Production Stops – Is It Time to Hold or Cash In? first appeared on Survival World.
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, John developed a love for the great outdoors early on. With years of experience as a wilderness guide, he’s navigated rugged terrains and unpredictable weather patterns. John is also an avid hunter and fisherman who believes in sustainable living. His focus on practical survival skills, from building shelters to purifying water, reflects his passion for preparedness. When he’s not out in the wild, you can find him sharing his knowledge through writing, hoping to inspire others to embrace self-reliance.
