President Donald Trump directed the Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies Sunday, citing the high cost of manufacturing the one-cent coin.
The move follows long-standing bipartisan calls to cease production of the coin, with former President Barack Obama calling it a âgood metaphor for some of the larger problemsâ in the U.S. government in 2013. The years-old movement picked up steam in January after Elon Muskâs Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) called attention to the rising costs associated with penny production, with the U.S. Mint reporting the coin cost 3.7 cents to produce and distribute in fiscal year 2024.
âFor far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost US more than 2 cents,â Trump wrote on Truth Social. âThis is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Letâs rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if itâs a penny at a time.â
Debates over whether to continue minting the lowest-denomination coin have persisted for years, but calls to cease production intensified after fiscal year 2024, when the U.S. Mint reported a 20.2% increase in penny manufacturing costs given the rising price of copper and zinc. The cost for nickels also rose by 19.4% that year.
Legislative efforts to scrap the penny date to 1989, when Congress introduced a bill to round all cash transactions to the nearest nickel. In 2017, former Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Republican Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi introduced a bill to halt production for 10 years and decide whether to continue thereafter â both bills failed.
DOGE noted in January that penny production cost U.S. taxpayers over $179 million in fiscal year 2023, with pennies accounting for roughly 40% of U.S. coin production that year.
Other countries have also phased out their lowest-denomination coins, including Chile, Brazil, China and Canada.
The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundationâs request for comment, and has not yet released a statement on the status of penny production.
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