US President Donald Trump has ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant to stop issuing new 1-cent coins. Trump wrote about this on his page on the Truht Social social network.
“The United States has been minting pennies (1-cent coins) for a very long time, each of which literally costs us more than two cents. This is a huge waste!” Trump said, calling for an end to the wasteful spending of budget funds.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by businessman Elon Musk, announced in January that more than three cents would be spent on minting a 1-cent coin. According to DOGE, the US Mint minted 4.5 billion pennies in fiscal year 2023 (about 40% of all coins), which cost taxpayers $179 million.
According to the US Mint, in 2024, it will cost 3.7 cents to produce and distribute a 1-cent coin. In recent years, minting pennies has become more expensive - in 2016, it cost about 1.5 cents to produce a 1-cent coin. The price of copper used in the production of coins has more than doubled in recent years.
Even if the minting of 1-cent coins is stopped, they will remain in circulation.
Federal officials and economists have previously tried to stop the production of 1-cent coins, which have been minted in the United States since 1793. But eliminating the 1 cent could be a costly move, as transactions are rounded up to 5 cents.
The penny is not the only American coin that costs more to mint than its face value. The U.S. Mint estimates that by 2024, it will cost about 14 cents to produce and distribute a 5-cent coin.
The U.S. has previously stopped minting lower-denomination coins due to rising copper prices. In 1857, Congress stopped minting the then-unpopular half-cent coin, and also reduced the size of the 1-cent coin to reduce copper consumption. Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”
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