President Donald Trump is reportedly considering getting rid of the penny.
Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, which is led by billionaire Elon Musk, shared a post on X, a social media platform owned by Musk, claiming that it now costs three cents to produce a penny, which is triple its value and cost taxpayers an estimated $179 million in fiscal year 2023.
“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 department wrote, citing articles by JMBullion.com and CoinNews.net.
The U.S. Mint had already decreased the production of the penny by an estimated 29% margin from 2023 and 2024 and data shared by the bureau showed coin production declined for the fourth consecutive year, CoinNews.net reported. The outlet also acknowledged that the Federal Reserve typically orders more pennies to be minted than any other coin for currency.
Several other countries have already ceased production of one cent coins including neighboring Canada, which did so in 2012. Canada’s decision to cut out its one cent coin was due to most grocery store prices ending in 9 and an estimated $3.27 million more being spent in Canadian dollars at grocery stores with prices rounded up to the nearest nickel, according to the Atlantic Economic Journal.
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