No More Pennies? Trump eliminates production to reduce wasteful government spending
President Trump announced to Treasury Department to stop minting pennies, ending a 233-year run of the 1-cent coin.
Donald Trump has directed the U.S. Treasury to halt penny production, calling the coin’s manufacturing an example of wasteful government spending. In a Truth Social post following the Super Bowl in New Orleans, Trump argued that pennies cost more to produce than their actual value.
Despite Trump’s directive, the U.S. Treasury Department, which oversees the U.S. Mint, has not yet confirmed any official plans to stop penny production. Congress, which has authority over U.S. coinage laws, would likely need to approve such a decision.
Trump moves to eliminate the penny, citing high production cost
The U.S. Mint produced 3.2 billion pennies in 2024, despite the coin operating at a loss of $85.3 million. If Trump succeeds, the United States would join other nations, such as Canada, Ireland, and Brazil, in phasing out low-value coins due to rising production costs.
"For far too long, the United States has been producing pennies that cost more than two cents each to manufacture," Trump stated in a Truth Social post on Sunday night, following his departure from the Super Bowl in New Orleans. "It’s time to eliminate waste from our national budget—even if we do it one penny at a time."
While eliminating the penny was not a topic in Trump's campaign promises, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) brought attention to the issue in a January post on X. According to Doge, each penny costs over three cents to produce, amounting to $179 million in taxpayer expenses during fiscal year 2023, when 4.5 billion pennies were minted.
As of now, the Treasury Department, which oversees the U.S. Mint, has not made any official announcement regarding the potential halt in penny production.
Does Trump have the power to end penny production?
It remains unclear whether Trump has the legal authority to unilaterally stop penny production, as Congress oversees coinage laws and the manufacturing of U.S. currency. If the policy moves forward, the U.S. would join a list of nations that have eliminated low-denomination coins due to excessive production costs.
Several countries, including Canada (2012), Ireland, the Netherlands, and Brazil, have phased out or stopped circulating their one-cent coins.
This latest announcement is one of many swift changes implemented by Trump in his second term, alongside renaming the Gulf of Mexico and opposing efforts to phase out plastic straws.