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Penny pinching may become harder for Americans in the coming year, following President Donald Trump’s decision to direct the US Treasury to stop producing the penny saying production was costing more than the value per coin.
According to NPR, the US Mint said in its annual report that it lost $85.3 million on the nearly 3.2 billion pennies produced in 2024. The United States has been minting the current penny since the Lincoln cent replaced the Indian Head cent in 1909.
“I don’t think it’s a terrible idea, I mean it’s not like we’re going to run out of pennies,” said USM freshman student Ronnie James.
Estimates by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York say that more than 114 billion pennies are currently in circulation. However, some estimates put that number closer to 250 billion.
According to data from the US Treasury, it costs around 4 cents to produce every penny. In their 2023 report, the US Mint said that they produced around 4.1 billion pennies costing American taxpayers over $179 million. In their 2024 report, the Mint said that estimated cost had gone up almost 20% due to the rising cost of zinc and copper which are used to mint the coins. The rise of production cost led to a cost to taxpayers of $85 million in 2024, even though the Mint cut production of pennies by nearly 50%.
“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” President Trump said in a Truth Social post. “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.”
The penny is not the first US coin to stop production. The penny may become the 12th US coin to be retired, the last being in 1857 with the half-cent coin. That decision required congressional approval; however, some say that decision could also be made by the secretary of the Treasury.
“To be honest, I couldn’t tell you the last time I paid for something with a penny,” said USM student Taya Wells. “I mean we have other physical currency, and I’d imagine plenty of pennies, and everything’s digital now anyways.”
Many in congress have tried in the past to stop penny production when the cost of the minting rose over the value of the coin. One of the last was Sen. John McCain in 2017.