The U.S. government will no longer produce pennies after President Donald Trump ordered the Treasury to end their production, arguing that the coin is an unnecessary drain on resources. He announced the decision Sunday night, stating that the penny costs more to make than it is worth.
“For far too long, the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump said 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 nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”
The cost of making pennies has outpaced their value for years, with the U.S. Mint reporting that it cost over three cents to produce a single penny in fiscal year 2023. The Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk, recently pointed out that the U.S. spent more than $179 million on penny production last year alone.
Canada made a similar move in 2012, eliminating its penny after determining that its production costs were too high. While Canada’s pennies remained in circulation, the government recommended rounding prices to the nearest five-cent increment for cash transactions. Some economists have suggested the U.S. could adopt a similar system.
In addition to eliminating the penny, Trump declared February 9 as Gulf of America Day. The move follows his decision to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Trump has also restored Mount McKinley’s name after the Obama administration had changed it back to Denali.
The penny, which has been in circulation since 1793, was originally made of pure copper but is now primarily composed of zinc. According to former U.S. Mint Director Philip Diehl, billions of pennies have dropped out of circulation over the years, with many never being used in transactions.
