The U.S. last week unveiled its plan to finally phase out the lowly penny. The Treasury Department has placed its last order for the coins, which will no longer be minted, though they will continue to be legal tender[17].

Everything is making less cents. The US Mint has placed its final order of penny blanks and will stop producing the coin when those run out by early next year — marking the beginning of the end for one of the oldest continually printed money pieces in America,

Per the latest U.S. Mint report, it costs less than six cents to make a dime ($0.0576). To make a quarter, it costs about 15 cents ($0.1468), and nearly 34 cents for a half-dollar ($0.3397).

The American penny will begin its slow fade into non-existence as the government plans stop making the U.S. currency next year.

After more than two hundred years, the humble one-cent piece is on its way out due to production costs that significantly exceed its face value.

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The federal agency placed its final order for penny blanks this month, with the United States Mint slated to end manufacturing of the penny when that runs out, a Treasury official told CBS MoneyWatch.

The penny’s run is coming to an end. First minted in 1792, it has been in circulation constantly. It wll be sunseted next year. Afterward, things that cost a penny must “round up” or “round down” to a nickel.