The federal government made its final order of penny blanks this month − the first step to end the production of the 1-cent coin, a spokesperson for the Treasury Department confirmed to USA TODAY.

The United States wouldn't be the first country to eliminate the coin, Turco said. Canada, for example, decided to phase out its penny in 2012. In the U.S., the Department of Defense stopped using pennies at its overseas bases in 1980 because it became too expensive to ship them.