Bringing Back the Large Cent
With the penny’s future in doubt, an Ohio coin club is rallying around the Large Cent.
On Feb. 9, President Donald J. Trump ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to stop production of the 1-cent coin due to the high cost of making the lowly “penny.” About 240 million cents had been struck as of Feb. 13. The future of the cent is now in limbo. Congress, rather than the president, authorizes the Treasury to decide what coins are to be minted; however, it appears Congress will allow the presidential order to stand.
It doesn’t appear any grassroots effort is coming from anywhere to save the cent. However, a local coin club in Ohio is initiating a grassroots effort to revive the Large Cent, sort of in its place. The Large Cent would be revived as a collector’s item, not as a coin meant for circulation. The Shelby County Coin Club is asking other clubs and individual collectors nationwide to petition their congressperson to approve such a commemorative. The petition can be requested at rschwa1957@outlook.com.
Past commemorative coin proposals have typically been initiated by politicians and special interest organizations seeking to earn money from the profits of sales. Should the club’s efforts succeed, it appears to be a first. According to an SCCC statement, “There are many early U.S. large cent coins that are exceedingly rare and unlikely to be purchasable by the average collector. The mint, with the modernizing artistic touches of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, could satisfy numismatists and issue updated versions (or original designs if so determined) for sale in these sets.”
The mint is about to put Superman on a coin due to its collaboration with Warner Bros. Why not produce commemoratives by collaborating with coin collectors?
You may also like:
