Trump orders Treasury to stop minting new pennies
Each one-cent coin costs the Treasury Department about 3.7 cents to produce.
President Trump ordered the Treasury Department to stop making new pennies because the government loses money on them, he said Sunday night.
Trump’s authority on the issue is questionable, as only Congress has the power to make currency changes under the Constitution.
However, Trump said he told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to simply stop minting new pennies.
“Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” he wrote on social media after leaving the Super Bowl on Sunday night.
In 2024, the U.S. Mint reported it cost 3.7 cents to make each one-cent coin, an increase from 3.1 cents the year prior. To produce 3.2 billion pennies last year (worth $32 million) it cost the government $85.3 million.
Various politicians have advocated for years to stop producing pennies. Back in 2013, then-President Barack Obama said he was open to the idea, but penny production continued anyway.
The U.S. has discontinued currency before, ditching the half-cent coin all the way back in 1857. Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1857 to get rid of the disliked coin. Other countries have already got rid of pennies. Canada stopping production on them back in 2012.
The penny is not the only coin the government loses money on. Each nickel costs about 14 cents to make.
Trump and his pal Elon Musk have spent the first month of his second administration seeking out ways to make drastic cuts to the federal government.
With News Wire Services