Can you imagine? One day you might be sitting in your rocker on the front porch telling your grandkids about pennies.

We used to bike down to the local grocery store and fill up little brown bags with penny candies, one cent per sweet. Sometime after I moved away and went back home to visit I learned they'd done away with the penny candies. How rude!

The problem with pennies is that it costs more to produce one than the one cent that its worth. The government loses money on every penny created.

In 2018 the Saturday Evening Post ran a story with 7 Reasons to Get Rid of the Penny. Vending machines don't want them. Heck, people leave them at the cash register for the next guy.

Most people are moving away from currency altogether -- I can hear my mother calling it "icky" in my head as I write this. My favorite reason the Post listed is that nobody's going to forget President Lincoln, because he's still on the $5 bill after all.

Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis agrees with President Trump, saying that "the time has come to fully end the production of the penny and save American taxpayers money."

She rests her argument on the logic that it costs the U.S. three cents to make a one cent coin.

“By suspending its production, we can reduce government spending, streamline transactions, and move toward a more practical financial system. It’s time to invest in a future that works for the 21st century economy, and that starts with suspending production of the penny.”

Senator Lummis, along with New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Representative Lisa McClain (R-MI), and Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA) introduced the Common Cents Act, bipartisan legislation to officially suspend production of the penny.

Background

On February 9, 2025, President Trump stated on TRUTH Social that he wants to stop minting the penny.
On February 18, 2025 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed that the U.S. Mint will stop production of the penny soon.
The late Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi in 2017 introduced the COINS Act, which would have suspended minting of the penny.

Pennies You'll Wish You'd Picked up

While the common perception of pennies is that they are practically worthless, some pennies, particularly older ones or those with errors, can be very valuable to collectors. For example, certain error coins and varieties, especially from the early years, can fetch hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Gallery Credit: Kolby Fedore, TSM

Wyoming Mountaineers of Casper College Archival Collection

This collection was found unprocessed but was pieced together in stages over the course of a year, starting with the scrapbook and photo albums created by the WMCC. These items were found first and so were arranged and described at the collection level, and then as processing continued, the climbing vest and pitons were found, followed by various documents and articles written and published on the Mountaineers, all of which brought the collection together.

Highlights of the collection are the artifacts and documentation of the First Graduation Climb on Devils Tower in 1955, the 1956 Rappel off the side of the Casper Gladstone Hotel, and the climbs during the 50th Anniversary of Devils Tower. Documentation on the latter includes a feature in LIFE Magazine.

Gallery Credit: Kolby Fedore