KELOLAND penny collectors in a pinch following Trump order

SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — Could the penny jar in your home prove to be a gold mine now that President Donald Trump has ordered the Treasury Department to stop making pennies?

Trump issued an executive order last month saying it costs twice as much to mint the coins than the actual value of the penny itself.

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Collectors believe their value could rise with fewer of them in circulation. But don’t let the lowly penny raise your expectations of instant riches.

The penny has plenty of sentimental value to collectors like Bruce Hope of Sioux Falls.

“It’s just a part of the heart and soul of America, the money system,” Hope said.

We found Hope browsing for old pennies at the coin shop, Great Stuff 4 You.

“I love to go to the bank and go through a few rolls of pennies and see if I can find something old. It’s pretty hard to do these days, find the old stuff because everybody’s picked through it,” Hope said.

While Hope laments the loss of the penny, on the flip side, the store’s owner welcomes putting the penny out to pasture.

“As a taxpayer, I’m all for it! On the surface, it’s a great thing and as a store owner who sells pennies, I love it!” Hope said.

The store owner didn’t want us to show his face or use his name for security reasons. But he doesn’t hide his enthusiasm for collecting pennies.

“Where silver and gold might tear a family apart, pennies can bring people together. When was the last time you heard someone get a divorce over some pennies?”

If you think you may have some hidden treasurers stashed away in your junk drawer, check and see if you have pennies that are minted in 1982 or older, before the mint started adding a lot of zinc to the coins.

“The pre-1982 pennies are all copper and there’s almost three cents of copper in each one and I know a lot of people that save those,” Midwest Gold & Silver Coin Shop owner Nick Clausen said.

Other pre-1982 pennies are valued at much more than 3-cents apiece… a lot more! Midwest Gold and Silver has a copper half-penny from 1795 worth more than $12-hundred!

“They used half-cents and large cents up until the 1850’s. But just like they’re obsoleting pennies today, you used to be able to buy something with a half-penny and they ended up getting rid of those because it became too small of a number to use,” Clausen said.

Clausen has been hearing from his customers about what discontinuing the penny will mean for their value.

“They specifically ask about the 2025 pennies. And that I don’t know if they stop making them this year could be a harder coin to get maybe, depending on how many they have already made this year,” Clausen said.

Clausen is also disappointed that the penny is on the way out.

“I like paying with change and I pick up pennies off the ground, so,” Clausen said.

But it’s more than just personal preference to Clausen. He says taking pennies out of production will discourage people from enjoying the hobby of collecting.

“It will be sad to see pennies go away because penny collecting is really the gateway to coin collecting. Because it’s affordable for a lot of people. There’s some rare pennies out there, but most of them are easy enough to come by,” Clausen said.

Collecting will really pay off if you come across the rarest of pennies. You just have to keep looking.

“Since 1793, the United States Mint has made over 300-billion pennies, so I think there’s still plenty to go around.”

The owner of Great Stuff 4 You says pennies have been, in his words, “flying off the shelves” at his store since Trump issued the executive order.