President Trump has instructed the Treasury secretary to stop making pennies, calling them “wasteful.”
“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Mr. Trump posted Sunday night on Truth Social. “This is so wasteful!”
“I have instructed my Secretary of the U.S. Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” he said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was sworn in late last month.
Pennies cost more than they are worth to make, nearly $0.037 per 1 cent, an increase from $0.031 the previous year. The U.S. Mint reported a loss of $85.3 million in fiscal 2024 on the roughly 3.2 billion pennies it produced.
Mr. Trump has been fierce on cutting government spending in his first weeks in office, much of it directed by Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency that the president created.
The DOGE X account pointed out the cost of pennies in a post last month.
“The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023. The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced. Penny (or 3 cents!) for your thoughts,” the DOGE account’s post said.
It wouldn’t be the first time the U.S. has eliminated a coin — the half-cent coin was discontinued in 1857.
Canada discontinued its penny in 2012, citing the cost of the coin production.
Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado said it would be a “great move” to eliminate the penny.
“As well as saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, there are major environmental benefits to eliminating the penny,” Mr. Polis wrote in an X post.
Northeastern University economics professor Robert K. Triest said last month in the Northeastern Global News that the process of getting rid of the penny is “a little unclear.”
“It would likely require an act of Congress, but the Secretary of the Treasury might be able to simply stop the minting of new pennies,” he said.
— This report was based in part on wire-service reports.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.