Trump Instructs Treasury To Stop Producing Pennies

President Donald Trump has ordered the end of penny production in the United States, citing the rising cost in a post to Truth Social on Sunday night.

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

“Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” he said.

However, studies have found that eliminating pennies would pressure the U.S. Mint to produce more nickels would have to be produced to make up for the loss. The Treasury spends more on nickel production than on the penny.

According to an annual report from the Mint from the latest fiscal year, each penny costs 3.7 cents to make 3 cents for production costs and 0.7 cents per coin for administrative and distribution costs. Each nickel costs 13.8 cents – 11 cents of production costs and 2.8 cents of administrative and distribution costs. 

Mark Weller, executive director of the Americans for Common Cents finds that the Mint would most likely have to make in the range of 2 million to 2.5 million nickels a year to meet demand from retailers if it stops making pennies permanently.

eliminating the penny because it is likely to speed up transaction time, even if only by a second per cash-paying customer. Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the group, said that without the penny, cash transactions would have to be rounded to the nearest nickel

The National Association of Convenience Stores has advocated for the idea to get rid of the penny because it is likely to speed up transaction time for cash customers. Jeff Lenard, spokesman for the group, said that cash transactions would have to be rounded to the nearest nickel without the penny.

In 2013, former President Barack Obama even expressed his support for eliminating pennies.

“This is not going to be a huge savings for government, but anytime we’re spending more money on something that people don’t actually use, that’s an example of something we should probably change,” Obama said.