Trump decided it’s finally time to stop circulating this form of money
Say goodbye to the penny, which the U.S. Treasury will stop producing by early 2026.
The Wall Street Journal Thursday is reporting that the long-promised end of the 1 cent piece is nigh.
Democrats and Republicans have long been critical of the penny, and President Trump called for its end back in a February social media post.
Production will stop once the treasury runs out of the blank templates used to make them, according to the Journal. The final order of blanks was placed this month.
The move would save about $56 million a year in production costs, as it takes about 4 cents to make a 1 cent piece. That adds up to more than $85 million lost to produce about 3 billion pennies.
And according to the government, about $14 billion in pennies sit in jars and piggy banks. An estimated $68 million in pennies are thrown away each year, such as at airport security checkpoints.
But getting rid of the penny will likely have other consequences, such as businesses rounding prices up or down to the nearest nickel, as well as the calculation of sales taxes.
You’ll still be able to use pennies once production stops, until they stop circulating.
The U.S. Treasury said it has the power to halt the production of new coins, though the power actually resides with Congress over size and composition.