No more pennies? Donald Trump orders halt to costly coin production

President Donald Trump has announced plans to end the production of new pennies, citing the high cost of minting the one-cent coin.

The President has directed the Treasury Department to cease minting additional pennies, emphasizing the financial burden of their production.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” Trump wrote in a post Sunday night on his Truth Social site. “I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”

Trump’s new administration has been sharply focused on cutting costs, targeting entire agencies and large swaths of the federal workforce for dismissal.

“Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” he wrote.

Trump sent the message after attending the first half of the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

According to a US Mint report, the cost of producing a single penny last year was $0.0369. Canada eliminated its penny in 2013, and several European nations have implemented rounding rules to phase out the euro cent.