President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he has instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt the production of pennies, citing the high cost of producing the one-cent coin.
In a social media post, Trump emphasized the need to eliminate wasteful spending, saying,
“For far too long, the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”
The announcement is coming as Trump returned to Washington from the Super Bowl, reigniting a long-standing debate about the future of the penny.
Rising Costs of Penny Production Spark National Debate
The US penny currency has faced criticism for years due to its high production costs. In 2023, the US Mint reported circulating approximately 4.1 billion pennies. However, the cost to produce and distribute a single penny has risen to 3.7 cents – a 20% increase from the previous year. The rising costs of metals like zinc and copper have contributed to this financial burden.
Last month, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency brought renewed attention to the issue by posting on X (formerly Twitter) about the inefficiency of producing the one-cent coin. This post reignited the movement to eliminate the penny, which has been gaining momentum in recent years.
Calls to Abolish the Penny Gain Momentum
The push to eliminate the penny is not a new phenomenon. A 2022 New York Times Magazine article argued for abolishing the coin, calling it a symbol of deeper systemic issues.
“The necessity of abolishing the penny has been obvious to those in power for so long that the inability to accomplish it has transformed the coin into a symbol of deeper rot,” the article noted.
Similarly, a 2013 commentary piece on the Brookings Institution website took the argument further, suggesting that the US should not only stop producing pennies but also halt production of the nickel.
The piece had argued, “Perhaps, the problem is not that advocates have been too bold, but rather that they have been too timid — let’s drop not just pennies, but nickels too and stop using the rightmost decimal place at all.”
Economic Impact of Eliminating the Penny
The removal of the penny could have great economic implications. For one, political pundits are arguing that removing the penny from circulation would streamline transactions and reduce production costs. However, critics, however, worry about the potential impact on pricing and charitable donations, which often rely on small change.
Despite these concerns, the movement to eliminate the penny continues to gain support. And now, with President Trump’s recent announcement, the debate over the future of the one-cent coin has reached a critical juncture.
