President Donald Trump said on Sunday night that he directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to stop the production of pennies, which he slammed as “wasteful.”
In a Truth Social post, Trump pointed out that the minting of a penny costs more than the actual value of the coin, adding that this is part of his goal of rooting out wasteful spending in the federal government.
“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. 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 nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” the president said.
According to JM Bullion, an online retailer of metals, the cost to produce a penny in the United States was over 3 cents in 2023, leading to the U.S. Mint losing $179 million that year. The increased cost is due to the materials used to make the coin, which is mostly made of zinc and is plated with copper.
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Penny production in 2023 fell to its lowest volume in over a decade, yet still made up nearly 40% of all coin production.
The Mint produces all coins in the U.S. and is a bureau of the Treasury Department.
