They also say, 'Liberty', 'In God We Trust', & 'E Pluribus Unum'. Lots of writing on government-issued materials is false, ceremonial, outdated, or overridden by later acts.

If it really bothers you, you can file that off your pennies before spending them at 5¢ value. We won't mind.

I would check 18 U.S. Code §331 (fraudulently defacing currency) before doing that.

There would be no fraud in scratching 'ONE CENT' off of pennies that were, by law, worth 5¢.

But also, when was the last prosecution for defacing a coin in the United States?

What sort of monster would call the police on a fellow person for passing a damaged penny?

How would the prosecution's burden of proof be met?

(Be a currency hacker, like Satoshi or Woz – https://hackaday.com/2012/08/03/woz-prints-and-spend-his-own... – not someone whose actions are limited by obscure dead-letter laws.)

How is Woz a currency hacker in that link? He literally just buys sheets from [0] and glues them together.

[0]https://catalog.usmint.gov/paper-currency/uncut-currency/

The $2 bills are currency. He recombines them to create funny & thought-provoking situations, including encounters with local police & Secret Service, that test the boundaries of what's allowed & what's trusted.

What other definition of 'hacking' do you use?

Unless you are committing fraud, like falsely trying to claim it has a value other than what it actually does, defacing currency isn't illegal. So trying to pass off a penny as being worth 5 cents today by filing it down would violate that law, but if they really were worth 5 cents, it would be fine.

I assume they would be redeemable at banks for nickels.

And payable to any establishment that accepted traditional nickels as well.