Here at the Money Museum, we have amazing pieces of history and we don't get a lot of interviews.

But we've had a lot this week because people want to know, “Like, what do you mean you're taking away our penny?” The first thing to say is that there is no such thing as a U.S. penny.

We have never made pennies in the United States.

We have always made cents.

The penny was produced by England, and we used pennies to start with.

Our original cent was about the size of a quarter, called the “Large cent.” It actually changed sizes to make it more economical.

The cent now has a zinc core with a copper coating on it.

So this whole idea of changing the composition to lower the values, and at the same time maintaining its look, it's totally inherent in the concept of money.

There is the tool of money, and then there is the artifact of money.

So I think the penny completely is a nostalgia based object.

The cent cost about three-quarters of a cent to make just before the Civil War.

3.7 times at this point, I guess.

But, not to play on the pun, but It doesn't make sense.

It doesn't make sense.

Its so hard not to say “It makes sense.” Australia got rid of the one and two cent pieces in 1992.

Canada got rid of theirs in 2012.

And we have gotten rid of different denominations that have been retired, like the two-cent or my favorite is the trime, a three-cent piece.

So cool.

The Department of Defense ruled in 1980 that we would no longer be using cents in any of our U.S overseas bases.

In 2017, Senator John McCain put together a bill to leave the penny out of production for ten years.

That bill did not pass, clearly.

We have two different bureaucracies that produce our money.

Our paper money is produced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and our coinage is produced by the U.S. Mint.

The people who produce zinc and all that, they can influence congressmen by lobbying them.

If you make zinc for a living, and zinc is the majority of the penny, and we're making between 3 and 10 billion pennies a year, it makes sense that she would want to keep the zinc moving.

But I think the biggest thing is going to be nostalgia for the jokes, you know, not worth a cent the old the old sayings and things like that.

What, to me, is exciting about money is the history behind it.

I collect ancient coins, or I collect coins that are 200 or 300 years old.

They haven't been made for centuries or thousands of years, but there's still a fascination in them.

The economics of reality have moved past the cent.

But that doesn't mean that the cent is going to be dead.