WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump says he has directed the Treasury Division to cease minting new pennies, citing the rising value of manufacturing the one-cent coin.
“For much too lengthy the USA has minted pennies which accurately value us greater than 2 cents. That is so wasteful!” Trump wrote in a submit Sunday night time on his Reality Social web site. “I’ve instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to cease producing new pennies.”
The transfer by Trump is the most recent in what has been a rapid-fire effort by his new administration to enact sweeping change via government order and proclamation on points starting from immigration, to gender and variety, to the identify of the Gulf of Mexico.
Trump had not mentioned his want to eradicate the penny throughout his marketing campaign. However Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency raised the prospect in a submit on X final month highlighting the penny’s value.
The US Mint reported shedding US$85.3 million within the 2024 fiscal yr that led to September on the almost 3.2 billion pennies it produced. Each penny value almost US$0.037 – up from US$0.031 the yr earlier than.
The mint additionally loses cash on the nickel, with every of the US$0.05 cash costing almost US$0.14 to make.
It’s unclear whether or not Trump has the facility to unilaterally eradicate the lowly one-cent coin. Foreign money specs – together with the dimensions and steel content material of cash – are dictated by Congress.
However Robert Okay Triest, an economics professor at Northeastern College, has argued that there could be wiggle room.
“The method of discontinuing the penny within the US is just a little unclear. It could probably require an act of Congress, however the Secretary of the Treasury may be capable of merely cease the minting of latest pennies,” he stated final month.
