Trump says the penny costs too much, orders Treasury to stop making them
Pennies have cost more to make than they are worth for at least the last two decades, the U.S. Mint reports.
The United States has moved into new and uncharted territory after President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Mint to stop striking the lowly penny.
Trump was attending the Super Bowl on Sunday night when he took to his Truth Social media platform to declare that the days of the 1-cent copper-colored coin had come to an end.
âFor 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,â Trump wrote.
In fact, according to the U.S. Mint, the cost for creating a penny was 3.69 cents each last year, and the coins accounted for about half of the non-folding money shipped out by the government. Pennies have cost more to make than they are worth for at least the last two decades, the U.S. Mint reports.
Last year, 3.2 billion pennies were produced. At the fiscal 2024 rates, thatâs around $118 million spent in order to create $32 million in currency. Over the last three decades, the U.S. Mint has made around 250 billion pennies.
U.S. laws give Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent the authority to make the coins he âdecides are necessary to meet the needs of the United States,â and the 47th Presidentâs order seems to believe the penny does not meet that standard any longer.
âLetâs rip the waste out of our great nationâs budget, even if itâs a penny at a time,â Trump said.
Beyond the cost of making and moving pennies around, there is also a question of their utility.
According to Pew Research, as of 2022 four in 10 Americans reported making no purchases using cash, and only 14% of polled shoppers reported that all of their purchases were made using bills and coins.
The presidentâs decision to axe the penny comes as some businesses transition away from accepting cash purchases at all. In 2022, Fenway Park announced they would go cashless and that fans would need a credit or debit card to make purchases. TD Garden and Gillette Stadium maintain a similar policy.
This is despite the fact that Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell noted in 2023 that state law requires that âcash has to be accepted everywhere.â
With Trumpâs order, the United States will join a growing list of nations that donât use a 1-cent coin for cash purchases any longer. Canada stopped minting their 1-cent coin in 2012, and Australia abandoned theirs in 1991.