Without Pennies, What Becomes of Penny Loafers?

New York Times

12-02-2025

It was a question begging to be asked after President Trump announced on Sunday that he had ordered the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to stop minting pennies: What would become of the penny loafer?
Though it is unclear whether Mr. Trump's presidential powers permit him to stop the production of pennies — according to the United States Mint, that authority rests with Congress — his order raised the stakes of efforts to abolish the 1-cent coin, which detractors have said is worth less than the cost of producing it.
Over the decades, the penny has lent its name to various elements of American culture: penny candy, for instance, or penny arcades with their penny slot machines. But few, if any, have been more enduring than the penny loafer, which became inextricably linked to American style after young people started stuffing pennies in the notched strap atop it.
On Monday, as New York Fashion Week was winding down, guests at a handful of shows mused about how doing away with the penny could change the identity of the footwear that has been associated with the coin since around the time of World War II.
'It will be a dime loafer,' Martha Stewart said from a front-row seat at the Tory Burch show.
Lauren Ezersky, a former fashion writer and television commentator, offered a similar take at the Bibhu Mohapatra show. 'If you have some dough, it's going to be a dime,' she said, also floating the possibility of a nickel loafer.
According to the U.S. Mint, nickels are about 28 percent thicker and more than two millimeters wider than pennies — meaning they may be too hefty to fit into the slots in loafers' straps. 'You could make it work just like Cinderella made it work,' Ms. Ezersky said.
The designer Sergio Hudson also brought up the nickel, acknowledging that the loafers would require some design adjustments to accommodate the larger 5-cent coin. But Mr. Hudson, who was among the guests at the Bibhu Mohapatra show, had another idea, too: 'Maybe brands will come up with a fake penny to put in the loafer,' he said.
In fact, the luxury brands Christian Louboutin and Miu Miu already offer versions that come with metal tokens in their slots.
At the Tory Burch show, the stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson said that she owned the Miu Miu loafers and that, if pennies were discontinued, people might take it as a cue to start adorning loafers with something more whimsical than coins. She mentioned the charms and doodads that many are now using to decorate bags.
'Just replace it with weird things like mini Teletubby plush bears or something,' Ms. Karefa-Johnson said. 'The freakier the better.'
Others suggested that eliminating the penny might subject the loafer to foreign influence: At separate shows, both Linda Fargo, Bergdorf Goodman's senior vice president for fashion, and Derek Blasberg, a fashion writer and social fixture, said the shoe could be renamed for a certain European currency.
'It will become a euro loafer,' Ms. Fargo said at the Luar show. She added that the term not only 'sounded cool,' but also nodded to the penny loafer's popularity worldwide.
The loafers were almost exclusively worn by men in the United States before World War II, said Elizabeth Semmelhack, the director and senior curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. After leather rations set during the war were lifted, they became popular among teenage schoolgirls: Ms. Semmelhack cited a 1947 article on teen fads in Life magazine that noted how young women were embellishing their loafers with shiny new pennies.
Of course, even if they are retired, there are more than enough pennies in existence for the tradition of slotting them inside loafers to continue. And the type of loafer associated with the coin — a style that has been produced by classic American companies like G.H. Bass and luxury European labels like Loro Piana — has shown no signs of disappearing, Ms. Semmelhack noted.
Canada eliminated its own penny more than a decade ago. Australia, New Zealand and Sweden have also stopped minting their smallest-denomination coins.
'With pennies going away, this moment of loafer history itself will go away,' Ms. Semmelhack said. 'But I believe loafers will survive the lack of pennies.'
The fashion writer Leandra Medine did not think the future of the penny would have any effect on the loafer with an identity heavily shaped by it.
'It's going to stay the penny loafer,' she said, regardless if pennies become a relic of the past. Ms. Medine, who was at the Tory Burch show, added that eliminating the penny could give it a value greater than one cent, inspiring a new wave of interest in what future generations might see as an 'ancient coin.'
'That's exciting,' she said.