Trump's claimed justification for ending the penny makes no sense at all

[jmowreader]

Earlier this year, America's First Communist President forced the United States Mint to stop making pennies. His justification was it costs more than one cent to make a penny, so they must be bad.

If pennies were single-use items, this would be a sensible thing to do.

They aren't.

The US Mint says a penny has a 30-year service life. If a penny changes possession on average just one time per day, in a year that penny has seen $3.65 worth of usage. Over the penny's lifespan, it will see $107.38 worth of usage.

Because a penny is a durable item that never depreciates - if you could find a penny from 1793, the first year they were made, and spent it in a store it would still be worth one cent - how much they cost to make isn't really an issue.

[Irish_Dem]

1. How did he make money killing the penny?

He never does anything unless there is a personal benefit.

[Hugin]

13. I stumbled upon a right wing screed recently which for some reason...

Included copper, gold, and silver among the so-called rare earths. Which indeed they are, I suppose.

But, Trump’s ceasing the minting of pennies comes back to his incessant need for attention and approval. The wingers have been talking about getting rid of the penny almost as long as they have been moaning about the time change. I was surprised he didn’t do away with the time change, but he’s probably going to in the spring. By fiat, naturally.

He did it because he wanted to be talked about, which is exactly what’s happening.

[Irish_Dem]

37. Who gets all the pennies, and how much are they worth?

Yes it could be a publicity stunt, but always ask how Trump makes money on anything he does.

[Hugin]

38. Personally, I believe it goes back to a grudge against a dead guy.

In this case, John McCain. As always.

“In 2017, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced S. 759, the Currency Optimization, Innovation, and National Savings (C.O.I.N.S.) Act of 2017, that would stop minting of the penny for 10 years and would study the question of whether production could cease thereafter. The bill died at the end of the 115th Congress with no hearings held by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.”

More on this putting pennies before pounds saga: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_debate_in_the_United_States

It’s red meat for the MAGAts. The Democrats really need to focus on the important things. Pick one and stick with it. Like the war crime of summarily killing boats full of fishermen in international waters, stripping health care from millions of Americans, or even the Epstein Files.

He doesn’t even need to make money in reality. Someone merely has to convince him he is making money. Playing into one of his obsessions.

[Irish_Dem]

39. Getting revenge and grifting at the same time.

Trump would love that.

[Hugin]

40. Americans are weakest about what...

Bannon has deemed “flooding the zone”. We’ve been enculturated to fall for it with our ever diminishing attention spans.

Trump’s disorganized psychopathy and social media feeds it well. He’s an outrage machine and the M$M loves it.

[Irish_Dem]

42. The evil geniuses installed the perfect snake oil salesman.

[rampartd]

26. lincoln freed theslaves very bad person

maybe even dei

[Irish_Dem]

43. Oh geez I had not thought of that. Of course.

Bad man on penny because he was a good man.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. That's a good argument. Should be shared widely.

All the announcement did was drive pennies out of circulation. People are hoarding them. Maybe hope to sell the pre-1980 pennies for melt value. The copper-plated zinc pennies can't be worth much as melt value.

[Deuxcents]

3. I haven't heard one issue he's tackling make any sense or justification for his decisions..the penny

And now his big plan for healthcare. It literally makes the brain spin trying to get the logic

[Abolishinist]

4. This is not a new idea, as far back as 2008

Obama said the idea of eliminating the penny was worth considering.

#1. It costs more than it’s worth. It costs more than 1 cent to make a penny (largely due to zinc and copper prices). Taxpayers effectively subsidize a coin that has negative value.

#2. Minimal purchasing power. The penny has lost over 95% of its value since its introduction. You can’t realistically buy anything with one; prices are already rounded psychologically.

#3. Time and efficiency. Studies estimate pennies waste millions of hours per year in checkout time. Businesses spend real money counting, storing, and transporting them.

#4. Environmental impact - Mining zinc and copper is environmentally costly. Eliminating the penny would reduce metal extraction, energy use, and emissions.

Full Disclaimer: when I was considering running for President, one of my top 3 policy proclamations was the elimination of the penny. Another was bringing back Sunday afternoons at the local Colosseum, where those who have no idea who you are call and awaken you at 6:30 in the morning in an attempt to sell you something. They will be put to death. The 3rd was free pizza for everyone every Friday. Well, when I asked for donations, someone knocked on my door at 6:30am on a Friday morning to deliver a pizza containing 1,000 pennies immersed in gooey cheese. I decided to drop out.

[rampartd]

30. next time you run for president promise to implode the ball room

[jeffreyi]

5. Pennies were eliminated in Canada a long time ago.

I don't think the moon has exploded yet. If it has, enlighten me, please. ,

[Eugene]

8. Other countries think this through and do planned phase-outs rather than just act on impulse.

The US nickel also costs more than its face value. Trump just moves the problem, to another coin.

Other countries make their 5 cent pieces of out of cheaper materials like aluminum.

[Deminpenn]

23. During WWII, pennies were made out of steel

I guess no one brought up the idea of going back to steel. Think about all the American industries Trump claims to love returning to steel would help, steel producers, steel recyclers, coal companies, iron producers. Win-win!

[eggplant]

16. There's a whole documentary about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_1999

[LiberalLovinLug]

18. Its inevitable. Not Trumps idea. Just common sense.

[Wiz Imp]

6. On top of that, if cost relative to value was the real issue, nickels should be discontinued first.

Total cost of making a penny is 3.69 cents
In 2024, the US mint produced 3,225,200,000 pennies which resulted in an annual loss to taxpayers of $85.3 million.

Total cost of making a nickel is 13.78 cents
The 2024 production of nickels was 112,800,000, resulting in an annual loss to taxpayers of $17.7 million.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/business/costs-of-pennies-and-nickels

Phasing out the penny could result in needing to make more nickels, and the US Treasury Department loses far more money on every nickel than it does on every penny.

“Without the penny, the volume of nickels in circulation would have to rise to fill the gap in small-value transactions. Far from saving money, eliminating the penny shifts and amplifies the financial burden,” said American for Common Cents, a pro-penny group funded primarily by Artazn, the company that has the contract to provide the blanks used to make pennies.

On the other hand, pennies don't change hands anywhere close to once a day over 30 years.

One reason that the government has to make so many pennies every year is a large percentage of them don’t remain in circulation. They are stashed in penny jars or junk drawers at home. Or they fall on the ground and people don’t even bother to pick them up.

An estimated 66 to 74 percent of the pennies produced by the U.S. Mint vanish from active circulation after reaching consumers, primarily due to hoarding in jars and general loss. While the U.S. Mint's official lifespan for a coin is 30 years, a large majority of pennies are effectively removed from daily commerce much sooner. A 2022 government analysis estimated that about 60% of all circulating pennies are stashed in homes.

[eggplant]

17. The volume of nickels shouldn't need to increase if the penny is discontinued.

Because of rounding, you only need a single nickel to replace three or four cents worth of pennies. And half the time you exchange an existing nickel for a dime rather than use an additional nickel. It's a poor argument.

[Wiz Imp]

28. Most experts disagree with you including the Federal Reserve.

https://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/economic_brief/2025/eb_25-27#:~:text=Ironically%2C%20eliminating%20the%20penny%20could%20increase%20demand,$1.75%20for%20every%20$1%20issued%20in%20nickels.

With the penny being retired, attention may soon turn to the nickel. Ironically, eliminating the penny could increase demand for nickels, which are even more costly to produce. In 2024, it cost 13.8 cents to mint a nickel — more than double its face value — resulting in a seigniorage loss of $1.75 for every $1 issued in nickels. The Treasury incurred a seigniorage loss of $17.7 million last year from minting 202 million new nickels, notably lower than the loss incurred by minting pennies. However, seigniorage losses in the two previous years — $78.0 million in 2022 and $92.6 million in 2023 — were much higher due to larger production.

[Deminpenn]

27. Locally, Giant Eagle grocery stores offered $1 in gift cards for every 50 penny roll

They got 100M pennies for their 2 to 1 offer. The 1M worth of pennies cost them 2M in store credit gift cards.

[Bmoboy]

7. A mill is one tenth of a penny

Ten mills to the penny.

And yet I live without acknowledging the mill.

Money! What a concept!

[Martin68]

9. Krugman says the penny is no longer relevant. It is obsolete. We should also start minting one-dollar and two-dollar

coins like Canada does. the pair dollar is also obsolete.

[Deminpenn]

29. The problem with that is vending machines don't take dollar coins

Cash register drawers don't have compartments for them either. That's true for half dollars as well.

[Bev54]

32. In Canada our vending machines take $1 and $2 coins. Most adults use their debit or credit cards on the machines.

[Deminpenn]

34. That's nice to know

The US has tried more than once to get Americans interested in dollar coins with little success.

[Martin68]

47. Exactly. I used to spend every summer in Ontario, and I thought one and two dollar coins were great.

Canada also adopted machines tor tapping credit cards way before the US did. My cards didn't even have a chip in them at the time.

[Bev54]

48. Yes most people have their cards on their phones now so just tap the phone.

[BlueSpot]

35. If the penny is dead,

Can't they just shift everything one slot to the left to make room for the dollar? I don't think we mint half dollars anymore, do we?

Not advocating that but the drawer objection is questionable, assuming we don't make half dollars.

[Martin68]

46. That's like a blacksmith saying "we don't have horseshoes for automobiles. Let's stick with horses."

[flashman13]

10. It is an issue when you're dealing with a moron that can only focus on one thought at a time. Trump is really

incapable of comprehending any sort of complicated or interrelated sequences of ideas. So expect decisions that make no sense at all.

[intheflow]

11. Translation: Bessent plans on embezzling the nation's copper reserves.

Trump gets a cut, which is why he went along with it.

[Wounded Bear]

21. Not really a lot of copper in pennies any more...

I think they are mostly zinc with a copper plate.

[yellowdogintexas]

36. Even so, a quart jar full of pennies is $18.00

We save coins and periodically turn them in to the bank.

[patphil]

12. Actually, I don't think pennies circulate much at all.

Now-a-days, most purchases are either by check, credit card,or other electronic means.
I think most pennies just get put in jars or cups until there enough to roll up and turn in, or run through a change counter.
The average penny is probably used in a purchase less than once a month. Who walks around with them anyhow?
Women may have a few in the bottom of their purses, but that's it.
They're more of a nuisance than anything else.

[stopdiggin]

15. much hue and cry in advocacy - for a token that consumers in large part refuse to use

the labor cost for those who are (grudgingly?) forced into participation in exchange (cashiers, tellers, security) - far, far exceeding ...

[RockRaven]

14. He wants to destroy everything and anything he can.

Especially if it is something related to a person other people admire more than they admire him -- such as Lincoln.

[Melon]

19. They've discussed killing the penny forever.

It’s outlived its life. The penny isn’t worth enough anymore to manufacture.

[Wounded Bear]

22. Yeah, they can blame/give credit to trump if they like, but it's been in the works for a while...nt

[KelleyKramer]

20. That's right, it doesn't make any cents!

Sorry, I had to say it. LoL

[Ol Janx Spirit]

24. If a penny costs 3.69 cents to make, but a dollar only costs 4.1 cents to make*, then the face value argument...

...really doesn't mean anything does it?

When a penny falls in a hole never to be seen again, the government just lost a 3.69 cent investment into something it had promised a value of 1 cent to a consumer--so a theoretical 2.69 cent loss when it goes out of circulation since the government will never have to pay out that 1 cent it promised. But when a 1 dollar bill falls into a fire pit or a shredder, the government just made a theoretical 95.9 cents since they only lost 4.1 cents for something they promised to give the consumer $1 for.

Theoretically, 36 pennies have to be lost to even out the gain made on the loss of one dollar.

When you expand that to factor in that a $100 bill only costs 11.3 cents to make, you have to lose 3,713 pennies to offset the gain made on the loss of a $100 bill that some billionaire decided to light his Solo Stove with because it's cool.

None of this actually has to do with what it costs the government to produce the currency. And besides, that money the government spent made money for someone and some company, and it produced tax revenue from all of the employees of that company. Those employees bought things in their communities; and so on. The truth is that the government probably didn't actually "lose" anything on that investment. Just ask the people with the jobs supported by it.

We certainly don't hold bullet production for the U.S. military to the same standard. Defense contractors make a damn fortune producing ordinance and nobody ever asks what the ROI is on giving the military unlimited opportunities to produce shrapnel.

The truth is that the penny--and the nickel and the dime for that matter--is worthless as a denomination. And once vending machines stop taking quarters they will be a burden to carry too.

A penny in 1960 had roughly the buying power of a dime today because of inflation. At the very least, as denominations lose their buying power to the level of a higher denomination over time they should logically be phased out.

But the bigger issue is going to occur when the government pushes to phase out currency altogether. Cash can be exchanged without the ability of the government to track it, and at some point that's just not going to be acceptable to a government that wants to know about everything you make and everything you spend.....

* https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12771.htm

[eppur_se_muova]

25. Even if so, the thing to do is to make 2-cent coins that look almost like cents (not pennies -- there is no US penny).

Put them in the same cash register drawer compartment with the 1-cent coins and don't pay too much attention to the difference. People already 'give a penny, take a penny' (again they're cents, not pennies -- the penny is a British coin) at the cash register, and the cashiers (and accountants) don't fuss over it. Just phase out the cent and phase in the 2-cent over time, and it will hardly make a ripple. Though now when you say "that's my two cents' worth", maybe it will sound like it means something a little more substantial, somehow. Smaller coins -- the farthing (a "fourthing", one-fourth of a penny) was phased out a couple of centuries ago, as were at other times the half-cent, the half-farthing, and the quarter-farthing -- all pushed into uselessness by inflation, as, presumably, will b eall larger denominations in their time. Personally, I'm looking forward to the end of the dollar bill, replaced by a reasonably-sized dollar coin (SBA was fine, except that it was TOO similar to a quarter in size). It seems silly to have to get my wallet out for such a small transaction as one USD -- I'd rather fish in my coin pocket, but a certain politician from MA is said to be against phasing out the dollar bill. (Dollar coins are also great for paying at toll booths on windy days.)



a 4-million Deutschmark stamp from the era of the Weimar Republic, overprinted to create a 5-billion ('milliard') DM stamp

[dsc]

31. Getting rid of the penny is a fairly old idea

A good video about the issue

[Deminpenn]

33. Seigniorage

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/seigniorage.asp

It's the difference between cost to produce and face value of the currency. So if you lose a little producing coins, you make a bundle on paper currency. The US Mint makes a nice profit on commemorative coin issues like the state quarters series it released over a few years.

[Emile]

41. 1/2 Cent, Two-Cent piece, Three Cent piece, Silver Half-Dimes, Twenty-Cent piece, and

many more coins throughout our history have been eliminated.

[MichMan]

44. I hate having loose coins.

Last edited Sun Dec 14, 2025, 11:01 AM - Edit history (1)

I'm always on a mission to get rid of as much loose change as I can. Every time I use cash, I'm the guy that hands the cashier an assortment like a $5 bill, a dime, nickel and 3 cents on a $4.68 purchase to get back a couple quarters instead. I sometimes get a weird look from the cashier wondering why I'm handing them this odd assortment until the register tells them and they figure it out. I even use the self checkout coin feeders to feed in everything I have on my person and use a debit card to pay for the balance.

Of course, it inevitably happens that my elation at getting rid of it is short lived, as in the very next place I go using cash, I now don't have any, get a bunch back and thus the cycle starts over. Quarters are OK, because I can use them in a carwash

[PJMcK]

45. In Panama, pennies are necessary

Although Panama has its own currency, the Balboa, it is pegged 1:1 with the U.S. Dollar and American currency is used primarily.

As the overall economy is lower than in the U.S.-- many prices are 25%-40% lower-- pennies, nickels and dimes are necessary when making purchases. Generally, cashiers do not have a take-a-penny-leave-a-penny bowls by their register. Some merchants do not have credit card readers so it's cash only. Eliminating the coin will create a problem in this circumstance.

As usual, Trump creates problems rather than solving them.