Amid a push for cost-cutting, President Trump announced plans to stop penny production, claiming it costs more than its worth. He echoed past sentiments from Obama that spending on little-used items is wasteful. Previous bills to round cash transactions or alter coin materials have failed. The penny, first minted in 1792 and made of primarily zinc today, remains a topic of debate as the U.S. Mint produces them for practicality despite their economic inefficiencies and the rise of digital transactions.
For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents, Trump posted on his social media site Truth Social. This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.
Anytime we're spending more money on something that people don't actually use, that's an example of something we should probably change, President Barack Obama said in 2013.
Every penny counts: the penny was one of the first coins the U.S. Mint made shortly after its establishment in 1792 and has undergone significant changes since then.
The debate over the penny has reemerged amid the Trump Administration's focus on cost-cutting, with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency posting about it on X during the first week of Trump's second term.
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