WASHINGTON, D.C. – In President Donald Trump’s latest move to reduce government spending, he ordered the Treasury Secretary to halt penny production. Trump said it costs more to produce a penny than it’s actual monetary value. He described it as “wasteful” government spending.
According to the US Mint, they’re directed by congress, so it’s unclear if the President has the power to eliminate the penny.
According to a FY2024 US Mint report, every penny costs about $0.036 to produce and distribute a penny in last fiscal year. The US Mint lost about $85-million dollars on the nearly 3.2 billion pennies it produced last year. A handful of countries like Canada stopped producing pennies years ago. Australia withdrew their one and two cent coins from circulation, too.
We asked people a penny for their thoughts on the President’s penny proposal. Some questioned how it would impact the economy:
“Will there be inflationary effects, will it effect the prices of items,” asked tourist Joseph Teitelbaum. “Will there be 95-cent items, or a dollar o-five but I’m interested in what will happen as a result.”
Others said they rarely use coins or cash in their everyday expenses.
“I only use cards,” said tourist Artur Funica. “I don’t use pennies or money like bills. I don’t have to carry cash.”
“I think I carry cash around and I’ll use coins for tip jars and stuff like that they’re kind of a hassle,” said student Avery Adler.
“I’ll keep cash in my wallet, but I’ll keep like loose change so if I want to pay with cash I’ll run to my car to pay with exact cents,” said student Charlotte Akers. “There are so many other things that the new administration could be focusing on rather than stopping production of coins, which is very irrelevant with everything happening in the world right now.”
“I use cash and card, I didn’t know people had coins except to collect quarters,” joked another tourist named Austin. He said if pennies would go out of production it would not impact his everyday life . “It’s more of a nostalgia, historical thing at this point right? I’m indifferent either way. I’ll wake up tomorrow and not think about a penny.”
