The U.S. Mint is set to stop the production of pennies, according to the Department of the Treasury. The move is a step toward eliminating the penny from circulation, a change that President Donald Trump has advocated as a cost-cutting measure, though saving money on currency will involve additional steps. The coin will be phased out by 2026.
Mint to stop printing pennies
The Treasury Department confirmed Thursday that the U.S. Mint will no longer be ordering blank pennies. It will continue to print pennies with the blanks currently in stock but will stop printing the coins when its current supply of penny blanks runs out. The move follows a pledge by Trump in February to stop making pennies. “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” Trump posted in February. “I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”
Cutting back on coins as a cost-saving measure
The U.S. Mint places the cost of penny production even higher, noting that it costs about 4 cents apiece to produce the 1 cent coin. Officials also note that pennies are relatively underutilized, despite the fact that there are currently 114 billion of them in circulation. Advocates for keeping the penny, meanwhile, point to specific uses such as charity drives for which the coin is convenient. Experts also note that moves to eliminate the penny must be combined with other reforms, like rounding up the prices of goods, in order to decrease demand for nickels, which cost even more to make than pennies — about 14 cents per 5 cent coin.
The trend toward eliminating the penny
Pennies have existed for most of the history of the United States; the U.S. Mint began printing the coins in 1793, shortly after Congress authorized the creation of the Mint. In 1909, 100 years after Abraham Lincoln’s birth, his face was added to the penny. But while the coins are ubiquitous and have a long history, they have become less necessary as more transactions occur electronically. The push to get rid of the penny in the U.S. has endured for decades, with legislators, including the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona, proposing legislation to pause or eliminate penny production. Phasing out the penny would follow the example of countries like Canada, which got rid of its penny over a decade ago.
For now, pennies will still be available and accepted as payments as they have been for over 200 years. Once the U.S. Mint stops making the coins, they will become more rare, but it will take other changes by the Mint or by Congress to turn the move to stop making pennies into real savings for the government and for taxpayers.
