Penny for your thoughts? Better raise the price. The US Mint brought more than two centuries of penny production to a close last week, and the final coins off the presses could become a hot item among collectors. Some reports suggest those final five pennies, struck during a ceremony in Philadelphia, could be worth as much as $5 million each. Others say the numbers may be far more modest.

Read also: Trump Puts the Penny on Notice: The Fuss Over Our 1-Cent Coin

The circulating penny was first issued in 1793, though it began to resemble our modern pennies in 1809. That's the centennial of President Abraham Lincoln's birth, and the year the US first put his now-familiar image on the penny.

The penny's last pressing took place on Nov. 12 at the Philadelphia Mint, but not without a spe

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