Just pass a law making the one cent coin worth two cents in 2026 and then start minting the exact same coin in 2025 with “two cents” on it. Pay banks $125 for every $100 of cents returned starting in 2024 and increase that to $150 for every $100 of cents in 2025.
An amazing billions of cents would reappear from personal stashes if the incentive was there. There would be no need to mint any new cent coins.

Canada got rid of their cents 11 years ago and I’m still finding a couple a week in my penny rolls at work! I wonder how much of their mintage has gotten entangled in the US’s?

Only Queen Elizabeth one I haven’t gotten is 2009 and I’m down to 1938 and 1939 for George VI (I’ve only ever gotten one George V – a 1933 – so I’m not expected to complete that set!)

@erv : My area banks haven’t let me get halves since 2017 (stupid mergers!). I miss the fun of finding what I might each month.

most cashiers don’t want to deal with half dollars or even dollar coins for that matter. most cash drawers in the US only have 4 spots for coins (cent/nickel/dime/quarter) and 5 spots for bills ($1/$5/$10/$20/$50) with $100s usually getting stuffed under the drawer. so any other denominations wind up being a pain to handle – this is the main reason, i think, they just don’t get given out unless you ask when they happen to have one. when (not if) cents are discontinued, then probably the dollar coins would get used more, but half dollars seem less likely to get used.

as a very unscientific check, i looked at all the quarters i have collected recently in ordinary change without going out of my way (i.e. no rolls from the bank or anything like that) – I tend to use the quarters but right now I have 27 to look at. i went through them and the population was: 9 ‘regular’ clad quarters, 7 state quarters, 7 ATB quarters, 3 women quarters (2 for 2022, 1 for 2023 – eleanor roosevelt) and 1 bicentennial quarter (i think people have finally realized these things are only ever going to be worth 25 cents)

I too wonder where they are actually used. I will periodically get a few rolls of halves from the bank. The last time I received a roll of 2022 halves. I search the rolls for silver but I have not been lucky in a long time. I like to spend them, but I do not recall getting one back in change. Often times the cashier will ask for their manager to verify that the coin is genuine and that they can accept them.

The cent trend is troubling, but expected, I suppose. I’ll always have a soft spot for the humble cent (despite its lack of utility for the past 40+ years at least 🙂 )

The ones I’ve never been able to get are the Yosemite America The Beautiful quarters. I suppose Yosemite hoarded them all to sell to tourists who visit the park. 🙁