The penny will not be removed from circulation, but its quantity will gradually decrease due to wear and tear and the cessation of new coin minting. Last Wednesday, the last penny was minted in the United States, and this will affect Panama, which will stop sending pennies to be minted. Carrizo clarified that if a sale ends in one or two cents, it is rounded down to zero, while if it ends in three or four cents, it is rounded up to five cents. He believes that the disappearance of the penny could serve as an incentive to use digital payment methods more, where rounding will not be necessary. The manager clarified that the penny will not lose its value, so it should not be a cause for panic for those who have them. According to Carrizo, each penny costs 3.7 cents to produce, so the U.S. Treasury decided to stop issuing them. Moreover, the National Bank will eventually stop bringing in new pennies and will keep the ones it has in its cash registers that can still circulate. The decision to eliminate the penny is based on the cost of producing them. If a total ends in six or seven cents, it will be rounded down to five, and if it ends in eight or nine cents, it will be rounded up to ten. It is estimated that there are 250 billion of these coins in the United States alone. However, the manager of the National Bank of Panama, Javier Carrizo Esquivel, announced that he will propose to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) to introduce a rounding bill, as is practiced in other countries, for example, in Colombia. The manager stated that this new legislation must be accompanied by extensive educational efforts, and he envisions that the rounding law could become a reality by the middle of next year.
Panama to Stop Minting One-Cent Coins
Panama will stop minting one-cent coins due to their high production cost. The National Bank will propose a law for price rounding, similar to other countries. The penny will not lose its value, but its quantity will decrease.
