Treasury Department to discontinue penny production
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The penny will no longer be produced. Photo Illustration: Tim Boyle/Getty Images
The Trump administration plans to end production of the penny after the cost of making it ballooned and it became increasingly useless as currency.
Why it matters: The U.S. Mint reported losing $85.3 million on the nearly 3.2 billion pennies it produced in the 2024 fiscal year that ended in September.
Driving the news: The Treasury Department said the Mint will stop making pennies after it runs out of the blank templates used to make the one-cent coins, noting the final order of blanks was placed this month.
- The move will save the government $56 million a year in reduced material costs, according to the government.
- "Given the cost savings to the taxpayer, this is just another example of our administration cutting waste for the American taxpayer and making the government more efficient for the American people," a Treasury spokesperson told Axios in a statement.
Catch up quick: President Trump said in February that he had instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to "stop producing new pennies."
- "For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. "This is so wasteful!"
- "Let's rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it's a penny at a time," Trump said.
Zoom in: The U.S. Mint's annual report cites the cost of making a penny was 3.7 cents in Fiscal Year 2024.
- The cost of the coin has "remained above face value for the 19th consecutive fiscal year."
- The unit cost for nickels was 13.78 cents, the report said.
What's next: The coin can still be used to pay for things.
- But Treasury told WSJ that when there's not enough pennies to use in everyday cash transactions, businesses will need to start rounding up or down to the nearest 5 cents.
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