The U.S. Treasury has been directed to stop producing pennies after President Donald Trump called the coin an unnecessary burden on taxpayers. Announcing the decision during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, Trump criticized the ongoing minting of pennies, which cost more to produce than they are worth.
“For far too long, the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “This is so wasteful! 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.”
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had previously raised concerns about the penny’s cost. The agency reported that each penny cost over three cents to produce in fiscal year 2023, with the U.S. Mint spending more than $179 million on them that year. Although DOGE had not officially proposed eliminating the penny, the agency had pointed to its high cost as a potential target for cost-cutting.
The U.S. Mint has continued to produce billions of pennies annually, despite longstanding discussions about discontinuing them. The Brookings Institute has noted that the combined cost of producing pennies and nickels has resulted in billions in losses. Meanwhile, other nations, including Canada, eliminated their smallest denomination coins due to similar concerns.
As part of Sunday’s announcement, Trump also declared that February 9 will now be known as Gulf of America Day. The designation follows his previous move to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, along with his decision to restore the name Mount McKinley to Alaska’s tallest peak after the Obama administration had changed it to Denali.
The penny, first introduced in 1793, was once made entirely of copper but is now mostly zinc. Studies have shown that billions of pennies are never used in transactions, with many coins taken out of circulation shortly after being minted.
