In God We Trusted: America Says Goodbye To The Penny
The United States Mint pressed its final penny — ending more than two centuries of production for the humble one cent coin that also bore one of the country’s most enduring spiritual mottos: “In God We Trust.”
The decision, announced as a cost-saving measure, closes a chapter of American history in which faith, national identity and everyday commerce mixed on a copper surface.
Introduced in 1793, the penny once carried real value. Over the decades, it became less a unit of currency and more a cultural relic, hidden away into jars, found on sidewalks or saved in a wallet for luck.
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For others, its religious inscription — one found on other U.S. coins and paper currency — remained one of its most powerful features. The penny served as a daily reminder of divine trust in one of the smallest things.
“God bless America, and we’re going to save the taxpayers $56 million,” U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia on Wednesday before pressing the button that struck the nation’s final penny.
Since 1864, towards the tail end of the Civil War, the motto “In God We Trust” first appeared on the penny and other U.S mint-issued coins and bills.
The modern penny, starting in 1909, featured President Abraham Lincoln, who was in office during the Civil War. Historians largely view Lincoln, who grew up Baptist, as neither a Christian believer nor a secular freethinker.
President Donald Trump ordered the coin’s phaseout earlier this year, citing waste and inefficiency since it cost nearly four cents to make.
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The production of pennies may have come to an end, but 250 billion remain in circulation. They will continue to be in use. Once exhausted, stores will round up by five cents.
Religiously-affiliated charities, such as The Salvation Army, had come to rely on spare change — much of it in the form of pennies — during the Christmas season to help raise money for the needy.
Beyond its economic and charitable value, the penny also carried spiritual meaning for many Americans. The phrase “pennies from heaven” reflects a widespread belief that finding a penny — especially in a moment of need — is a sign from a deceased loved one or a divine presence (as in the form of an angel), a gentle reminder of care and providence.
The belief — in the form of an after-death communication — inspired popular culture as well, including the 1936 song “Pennies from Heaven,” and countless charitable drives that collect spare change under the same hopeful name. It was introduced by Bing Crosby with Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra in the 1936 film of the same name. The movie was remade in 1981.
Frank Holt, an former professor at the University of Houston who has studied the history of coins, lamented the penny’s demise.
“We put mottoes on them and self-identifiers, and we decide — in the case of the United States — which dead persons are most important to us and should be commemorated,” he said. “They reflect our politics, our religion, our art, our sense of ourselves, our ideals, our aspirations.”
Clemente Lisi is executive editor at Religion Unplugged.