President Donald Trump has revived the penny debate, which could lead to a world without pennies. President Trump tweeted about the penny, which he argues costs more than a cent to create, after the Super Bowl.
Trump tweeted, “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents.” “How wasteful! I ordered my US Treasury Secretary to stop minting pennies. Let's cut waste from our nation's budget, even a penny at a time.”
The penny has long been debated because many believe its use is not worth its production cost. Even 10 years ago, President Barack Obama was torn about the issue.
“Anytime we’re spending more money on something people don’t actually use, that’s an example of something we should probably change,” Obama remarked in 2013.
Elon Musk's DOGE highlighted the cost of making pennies, bringing this issue back to the forefront.
“The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023,” DOGE said on X. In FY2023, the Mint produced about 4.5 billion pennies, 40% of the 11.4 billion circulation coins. Three cents for your thoughts.