President Trump claims he instructed the US Treasury to stop production of penny and call a penny in vain.
Trump announced his actions in the Truth Social Post Sunday night.
“For a long time, the US has been minting pennies, and it costs literally more than two cents. This is a waste! I have told the US Treasury secretary to stop producing new pennies. Let’s tear waste from our great nation. [sic] The budget is even if it’s a penny at once,” Trump said.
The cost of making penny was nearly 3.7 cents in 2024, according to the US Mint annual report.
How rare is your state quarter? And is it worth more than 25 cents?
Penny was made from copper before 1962 and is now made from most of zinc, but is copper-plated. Lincoln has been in Penny since 1909, according to the Treasury Department.
Elon Musk, a billionaire tech entrepreneur who has been tasked with cutting waste in the US by Trump, targeted Penny in a post last month on X.
“Pennies will cost more than three cents to produce and spend more than $179 million taxpayers in 2023. Mint produced more than 4.5 billion pennies in 2023, and for circulation It produced about 40% of the 11.4 billion coins. Musk’s Government Efficiency (DOGE) said:
It is unclear whether Trump has the power to unilaterally eliminate coins that are as low as one-cent. The currency specifications including the size of the coin and the metal content will be determined by the Congress.
But Robert K. Triest, a professor of economics at Northeastern University, argues that there may be some room for wiggling.
“The process of canceling penny in the US is a bit unknown. It is likely that Congressional acts will be required, but the Treasury Secretary may simply be able to stop the casting of new penny,” he said last month. .
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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