The USA Mint has positioned its last order for penny blanks and can stop manufacturing of the coin as soon as this final batch is accomplished, the Treasury Division confirmed on Thursday.
At present, it prices roughly 3.69 cents to make a single penny.
President Donald Trump introduced in February that he was ordering his administration to finish manufacturing of the coin, citing authorities waste.
“For much too lengthy america has minted pennies which accurately value us greater than 2 cents. That is so wasteful!” Trump wrote on Reality Social on the time. “I’ve instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to cease producing new pennies.”
The Related Press experiences:
The U.S. Mint has made its last order of penny blanks and plans to cease producing the coin when these run out, a Treasury Division official confirmed Thursday. This transfer comes as the price of making pennies has elevated markedly, by upward of 20% in 2024, in accordance with the Treasury.
By stopping the penny’s manufacturing, the Treasury expects an instantaneous annual financial savings of $56 million in lowered materials prices, in accordance with the official, who was not approved to debate the matter publicly and spoke on situation of anonymity to preview the information.
Final 12 months was the nineteenth 12 months that manufacturing prices of each the penny and nickel “remained above face worth.”
In 2024, nickels value 14 cents every to provide.
The Hill experiences, “Per the most recent U.S. Mint report, it prices lower than six cents to make a dime ($0.0576). To make 1 / 4, it prices about 15 cents ($0.1468), and practically 34 cents for a half-dollar ($0.3397).”
There are roughly 114 billion pennies in circulation, valued at $1.14 billion. Pennies will stay authorized tender after the manufacturing halts.
Senators Jeff Merkley, a Democrat, and Mike Lee, a Republican, launched a invoice to kill the penny earlier this 12 months.
“I’m happy to see the Treasury Division taking a web page from my ‘Make Sense, Not Cents Act,’” Lee stated in a press release offered to Nexstar in regards to the Treasury’s announcement. “Every penny prices 4 cents to make, so reducing this waste will save the American taxpayer over $85 million yearly.”
“Ending penny manufacturing is the correct factor to do, however let’s be sure that we do it the correct approach,” Merkley added. “If President Trump is critical about ending this wasteful spending—with every penny costing 4 occasions extra to mint than it’s price — he ought to work with Congress to take up vital laws, like my bipartisan invoice with Senator Mike Lee. It’s time to make sense, not cents.”
