Trump Orders Treasury to Halt Penny Production Over Cost Concerns

 

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President Trump announced on Sunday that he has directed the U.S. Treasury Department to cease minting new pennies, marking the end of the 233-year-old one-cent coin.

The penny, first introduced by the U.S. Mint in 1792, has become increasingly expensive to produce—now costing more than twice its face value, Trump stated in a Truth Social post shortly after leaving the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

"For far too long, the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!" Trump wrote. "I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies."

The potential removal of the penny has been a topic of discussion within Trump's administration since he took office. Last month, DOGE, the department led by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, reported that producing 4.5 billion pennies in Fiscal Year 2023 cost taxpayers over $179 million—amounting to more than 3 cents per penny. While Trump’s estimate put the cost slightly lower at 2 cents per coin, he argued that it was still too high to justify continued production.

"Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time," Trump added.

According to the U.S. Mint’s latest annual report, the cost of producing and distributing a single penny rose to approximately 3.7 cents in the 2024 fiscal year—an increase of 20% from the previous year. The rising costs of metals like zinc and copper have contributed to this surge, the report noted.

Several other countries have already phased out low-value coins due to similar cost concerns. Canada discontinued penny production in 2012, while Australia stopped circulating one- and two-cent coins back in 1992. In the U.S., fully eliminating the penny from circulation may require congressional approva