President Donald Trump directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday night to halt the minting of new pennies, citing "wasteful" spending as coin production costs soar.
"For 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. Let's rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it's a penny at a time," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump is entirely correct about the rising costs associated with coin production. Last year, the US Mint's annual report revealed that it costs 3.69 cents to produce and distribute a penny, resulting in a loss of 2.69 cents per coin for the federal government.
As of last year, about 250 billion pennies were in circulation in the US, equivalent to about 700 per person.
The US Mint's total loss on the year for pennies was about $85.3 million.
Don't tell Trump and the DOGE team, but the nickel costs about double its face value to produce and distribute.
In 2011, Kyle Bass recognized that the metal in a nickel coin was worth well above its face value. He stated then, "I just bought a million dollars' worth of them."
Regarding the legal authority surrounding currencies, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution indicates: "The Congress shall have power ... to coin money [and] regulate the value thereof."
However, Robert K. Triest, an economics professor at Northeastern University, told NBC News that the president may have some wiggle room.
"The process of discontinuing the penny in the US is a little unclear. It would likely require an act of Congress, but the Secretary of the Treasury might be able to simply stop the minting of new pennies," Triest explained.
Cost-cutting measures by Trump and DOGE are part of a mandate a majority of Americans gave the president for his second term in office, already winding down a few rogue federal agencies and eliminating thousands of bureaucrats from office.
Back to coins: Australia withdrew its one- and two-cent coins from circulation in 1992, while Canada ceased penny production in 2012.
