14-02-2025
Penny for their thoughts? Coin collectors, dealers, imagine a cent-less world.
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'I'm old-school,' said Papertsian, 76, who has accumulated the rounds of copper-encased zinc for seven decades. 'If I see a penny on the street, I still bend over and pick it up.'
In the grand scheme of President Trump's decrees over his first three weeks in office, the penny pronouncement was among the more inconsequential — and, like many of his orders, it's yet unclear if he actually has the authority to execute it (it's Congress that
Coin dealers and collectors are different. A handful of New England numismatists who spoke to the Globe do acknowledge pennies' present-day flaws, but also celebrate their hard-earned lineage — one that could hardly be eradicated, even if the coins are.
'It's not every day that your country decides to lose part of its currency,' said Douglas Lilly, a senior at Tufts University and a member of
Douglas Lilly presents a collection of pennies at Tufts University's coin club in 2023.
Carlin Stiehl for The Boston Globe/Carlin Stiehl
But not all numismatists are mourning like Papertsian. Instead, many are choosing to see the coin jar as half full.
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Just ask Gary June, who works at Stack's Bowers Galleries, a rare coin dealer in Boston. He's hopeful that all the hubbub will drum up new business, inspiring people to rummage through old albums or coin jars in search of a rarity.
'The Lincoln cent series hasn't had a major event for a while — really, since they moved from the wheat-back cents, which were made until 1958, and switched over to putting the Lincoln Memorial on the back,' said June, who collects Lincoln pennies. 'From a collector standpoint, having a 'shot in the arm' for the series is a good thing.'
Indeed, the 2025 penny has now
'There's been a lot of activity on the blog sites and the specialist sites,' said June. 'Since it happened so early in the year, presumably there'll be fewer of them, so they're already attaching some excitement and rarity to them.'
June, too, plans to go to the bank to get a few 2025 rolls, 'just for the heck of it.'
Gary June, a numismatist with Stack's Bowers Galleries, pictured in the Boston store on Feb. 12.
Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Matthew Johnson, the founder of Tufts' coin club, is one of those enthusiasts who filled up his penny collection, with entries for every year beginning in 1909, when Abraham Lincoln first graced the front of the coin. 'I started trying to collect that series because it was the cheapest to collect, because it's a penny,' he said.
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While he supports the retirement of the penny — 'it'll be a nice closure for me,' he said — it will give him more pause about parting ways with his personal treasury.
'Sometimes I'll go through and get rid of some coins in my collection to make room for other new coins,' said Johnson. 'But I don't think I'll be getting rid of my pennies anytime soon, just because I know that they're just going to be discontinued, and it'll be nice to have as many of those as I can.'
Back at Bay State Coin, Papertsian may outlast the penny — but just barely. This year will be the shop's last on Bromfield Street,
where foot traffic has taken a beating since the pandemic. He plans to close up shop when his lease expires in September.
The future of the penny is foggier. But to Papertsian, there is at least one certainty: Just about every one-cent coin is reliably worthless, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon.
'There's so many other things you can buy that's going to go up in 100 years or 10 years or whatever,' he said. 'Not the penny.'
A Lincoln bust is seen in Stack's Bowers Galleries in Boston.
Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
Dana Gerber can be reached at
