President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will stop producing new pennies, citing high production costs that far exceed the coin’s face value.
The decision, which he revealed Sunday night on Truth Social, is part of his administration’s broader effort to eliminate unnecessary government spending.
“For far too long, the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump wrote. “This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US 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 move comes as Trump, in collaboration with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), seeks to rein in excessive federal expenditures.
According to DOGE, the U.S. Mint spent more than $179 million to produce over 4.5 billion pennies in fiscal year 2023 alone. The manufacturing cost of a single penny has surged in recent years, reaching 3.69 cents per coin in 2024—nearly four times its actual value.
Musk’s newly formed department has been tasked with identifying wasteful government spending, with a goal of cutting $2 trillion in federal costs.
While DOGE did not explicitly propose eliminating the penny, it flagged the coin as an example of inefficient spending.
The U.S. penny has a long history dating back to 1792, when it was one of the first coins minted by the federal government. Originally larger and made entirely of copper, today’s version is mostly zinc with a thin copper coating. Despite its deep-rooted place in American currency, public support for the penny has waned over the years.
Former Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) proposed eliminating the penny in 1990, suggesting transactions be rounded to the nearest nickel, but his bill failed.
The late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) later introduced a proposal to halt production for a decade to study the effects of removing the coin, but it never moved forward.
Trump’s order marks the most significant step yet toward ending the penny’s run in American currency. While the timeline for implementation remains unclear, his directive signals a shift toward eliminating small but costly inefficiencies in government spending.