By Dr. Mike Fuljenz
The end of the one-cent coin looks to be approaching a reality in the United States now that President Donald Trump has announced he is moving forward with the plan to end the “penny” due to its increasing cost burden on taxpayers.
On February 9, President Trump posted on Truth Social, “For far too long, the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let's rip the waste out of our great nation's budget, even if it's a penny at a time.”
In actuality, the numbers the president referenced were outdated, as Ventris Gibson, U.S. Mint Director, explained to me in January that now the one-cent copper-coated zinc coin actually costs more than four cents to produce.
For years, I have written about eliminating the penny to save money, like several other countries have done. The movement began to gain steam in late 2024 as President Trump began looking for ways to reduce government expenses.
Of course, President Trump’s edict is only temporary and it would take a measure by Congress to permanently instruct the U.S. Mint to cease making cents for circulation.
After the election and the immediate prospect of President-elect Donald Trump’s attack on government waste, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst published her top suggestions for cutting waste, of which the abolition of the penny made her list. Under the heading “Bad Pennies,” she stated the measure would save about $100 million per year, as each one-cent coin costs three cents to make and the government makes billions of them each year.
More than a decade ago, I wrote an article for MAXIM, the glossy men’s magazine, arguing the same point about tossing the penny. Yes, I was in MAXIM but it’s not listed anywhere online, so you’ll have to take my word for it. I also made this the subject of my talk at the World's Fair of Money in Chicago in August 2013. I reminded readers and listeners in 2013 that, “We are long overdue in following the lead of many other countries that have successfully eliminated their lowest denomination paper money and coins.”
I reminded them that Canada stopped minting pennies the previous year (in 2012), saying, “We need to do this, too.” (Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand have also eliminated the penny.)
America has cut its lower denomination coins often in the past. We used to have the half-cent, two-cent, three-cent and twenty-cent coins. If you have any of these coins, they likely have a significant numismatic value. As for the penny, it made sense when it was first struck in 1793 but not now, 221 years later.
Since 1982, Lincoln cents are made up of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper and the cost of zinc is up 35% in the past year, from $2,300 per metric ton to $3,100 per metric ton. So, it’s no wonder the zinc lobby is the most powerful force behind continued penny production but we hope that the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in 2025 will be able to ignore the lobbyists and work directly with Congress and fight to abolish the penny.
According to the Mint, in 2023, the cost to make, administer and distribute the penny grew by 13% to 3.07 cents from 2.72 cents in 2022, and we make billions each year. In 2022, 6.3 billion cents were struck. At $2.72 each, the cost was $171.36 million for a net loss of over $108 million, and pennies made up nearly half (46.7%) of the Mint’s total coin production in 2022. In 2023, there were fewer pennies struck, but the cost per unit rose to 3.07 cents: The 4.5 billion cents minted in 2023 were the fewest minted since the 4.0 billion in 2010, and they accounted for 39.54%of the 11.38 million total coins produced last year. At 3.07 cents per unit (2.07 cents lost per unit), the net loss was about $93 million. In 2024, the cent production is lower, but the unit cost will be much higher due to the soaring cost of zinc in 2024.
Ending the penny would also drastically reduce the number of employees needed at U.S. Mint locations, saving tens of millions of dollars into perpetuity on salaries and benefits.
Let’s assume an average loss of about $100 million per year, amounting to $1 billion wasted per decade.
Many politicians have tried to retire the penny, without success. Perhaps President Trump and his team will have the power to cross the finish line. About the time I wrote my article in 2013, President Barack Obama suggested retiring the penny but couldn’t, saying, “It’s very hard to get rid of things that don’t work.”
Former Mint Directors also tried – including members of both political parties: Democrat Philip Diehl, the 35th Director of the U.S. Mint, who served from 1994 to 2000, said, “At the policy level, I think everybody agrees this is ridiculous” speaking about the manufacture of money-losing pennies. And Republican Edmond Moy, the Mint’s 38th Director, serving from 2006 to 2011 said, “I went to Congress saying ‘I’m losing $90 million a year on pennies, you guys need to pass a law forcing me to change it.’”
Later on, Tom Jurkowsky, a retired Navy Rear Admiral, who became the Director of Corporate Communications for the U.S. Mint from 2009 to 2017, said, “How silly it is, how much money it costs to produce pennies.” Jurkowsky also noted that Artazn, the company the Treasury has contracted to manufacture zinc blanks for over 40 years, has been lobbying against any efforts for penny reform. Since it would take an act of Congress to halt penny production, these bills have all died in Congress – so far – but perhaps the time for change is here.
One argument for keeping the penny is reverence for President Abraham Lincoln, but fear not for Honest Abe, whose face would remain on a larger canvas, the $5 bill and we will all save the wasted labor and time customers and cashiers spend to count out pennies, as is easily done in Canada.
Another argument for the penny is that charities would use penny accumulation drives to raise money but that practice has diminished through the years.
There are also some questionable polls from the zinc lobbying group, Americans for Common Cents, who claim their polling shows about two-thirds of Americans want to keep the penny because they are concerned that “rounding” might be used by merchants to raise prices. However, this appears to be a case of how the question is asked.
Based in Greenville, Tenn., Artazn proclaims itself, “the largest North American producer of solid zinc strip and zinc-based products and one of the largest in the world.” In reviewing records from the Federal Election Commission, multiple employees at the company have provided financial support to various politicians over the years, primarily to Democrats. Another group, Americans for Common Cents, is funded by Artazn, according to a New York Times article revealing the financial intricacies of supposedly saving the penny. But, the article points out that the Common Cents group consists of just one person – a Washington-based lobbyist named Mark Weller – and a website.
The Times also reported that, based on records from OpenSecrets.org, Artazn has spent about $3 million on coin-related lobbying since 2006. My own research, based on the current government contract Artazn has with the U.S. Department of Treasury and the USAspending.gov website, shows it has received between $4 and $5 million per month from taxpayers so far in 2024. In 2023, Artazn is reported to have received over $51 million in taxpayer funds from its Treasury contract.
In practicality, leading university economists – like Raymond Lombra from Penn State and Robert Whaples from Wake Forest – have arrived at opposite conclusions on the effects of rounding, with Whaples, like me, advocating for the elimination of the penny for more than a decade. Other countries, like Canada, have used rounding for over a decade and their citizens have accepted rounding as fair, as it cuts both ways. Besides, we mostly use credit or debit cards. Only 18% of transactions are made with cash.
Some Questions for the Penny Police …
Some penny collectors and dealers may complain but there would likely be a benefit to collectors by ending the penny coin series. It is likely that The Elongated Collectors (TEC), a non-profit numismatic organization founded in 1966 to celebrate the rolling and smashing of pennies to feature unique designs, artistry and inspiring statements would object – in principle – to the change. However, many diehard elongated penny collectors search for pre-1982 copper pennies over the newer zinc pennies because they produce better imagery when pressed.
Whenever an artist dies, their work becomes more valuable. When an author dies, their books sell better. Maybe that will happen with the value of the penny? But what will happen to all those “penny-pinching” phrases that have crept into our language?
Will the late actress Penny Marshall, who was actually named after the penny, and basketball player Penny Hardaway gain more notoriety? And with inflation running rampant these days, must we upgrade these other penny-weight phrases, too?
Will “a penny for your thoughts” become “a nickel for your nostrums”?
Will “penny-ante poker” become “5-card nickel-down no-peak poker”?
Will “penny stocks” become “dime shares”?
Will “penny wise and pound foolish” become “quarter wise and dollar foolish”?
Will “penny-pinching” become “paper pinching”?
Actually, the American term for the one-cent coin is “cent,” while the term “penny” is of British origin, so this list would make more sense if it contained the word “cents” instead of penny puns, but ever since the first cent was minted in 1793, Americans called them pennies, so it makes more sense to go with pennies.
Or go without pennies, as the case may be.
On a final note, pennies that you currently have will not be demonetized and will still be redeemable at banks and other institutions.
Here are further suggestions from the Florida United Numismatists (FUN) Convention specialist attendees in January 2025.
Make cents (pennies) only for mint sets, proof sets, rolls and bags for a profit for the U.S. Mint.
Make the cent coin out of copper like from 1982 and before.
This would be somewhat like 1970-D 50¢ (mint sets) and 1970-S 50¢ (proof sets) only made in 40% silver.
One-cent coins now cost over 4¢ per penny for the U.S. Mint to make.
Privy marks could be considered.
This is ok with penny specialists like Richard Snow and Charmy Harker, aka The Penny Lady, and elongated cent lovers like The Elongated Collectors, with changes noted above. U.S. Mint Director Ventris Gibson saw the merits in exploring this as have previous Mint Directors.