United States President Donald Trump announced on Sunday night that he instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to interrupt the production of a penny -popularly known as Penny -citing the high production cost.
“For a long time, the United States created cents that literally cost us more than two cents. This is a waste! I instructed my Treasury Secretary to stop producing new cents. Let’s end the budget waste of our great nations, even if it is a penny at a time ”
Donald Trump, in publication on the social network Truth Social
Penny has been under agenda for years, with the movement to eliminate it gaining strength after the department of government efficiency calling attention to the high cost of production of the coin of a penny.
Last year, a story from the New York Times Magazine defended the abolition of the currency. “The need to abolish the penny has been obvious to those in power for so long that the inability to do so has transformed the currency into a symbol of deeper rot,” the article noted.
The US House of Mint announced in 2023 that it circulated about 4.1 billion cents. In the 2024 fiscal year, the house said in its annual report that the US penny costs about 3.7 cents to produce and distribute, an increase of more than 20% over the previous year.
The increase in the cost of, including zinc and copper, is part of the reason why it is becoming more expensive to make the currency.
In 2013, a commentary article on the Brooking Institution website went a step further, arguing that the US would not only stop doing the penny, but also interrupt nickel production.
“Perhaps the problem is not that advocates have been very bold, but rather that they were very shy – we will set aside the cents, but also the five cents coins and stop using the right decimal house,” argued the article.
