Is not minting pennies the best option? As you may know Trump recently ordered the stop of the minting of the penny. Many experts also agree that it is wasteful because it costs around 3.7 cents to produce one penny. Since 2005 we have lost money for every penny minted and the loss has been increasing each year. Although this may seem like a good solution many things have not been considered.
Firstly, what are the effects of not minting the penny? The most obvious reason would be related to shopping. Many purchases today are low into the cents requiring the payment of the penny. Although this isn’t as big of a problem as before because many people pay via credit card or e payments, it still poses an issue. For example imagine having something that is $9.99 how would you pay for it? Many prices will have to change for convenience if the penny is not minted. Many people still use them and if the demand stays the same with lowering supply it will only lead to greater problems.
Most importantly if pennies stop getting minted, nickels the next smallest coin will have to be produced more. A nickel costs around 15 cents to produce which is 10 cents above its value whereas the penny only has 2.7 cents more than its value. In 2023 they tried minting less pennies which actually led to a higher loss in nickels. They lost 86 million from the pennies but an even higher 93 million from nickels. If we were considering saving money the best option would be getting rid of both coins altogether. Sadly this leads us back to the first issue about the convenience of eliminating both coins.
Before getting rid of the penny I think many of these issues should have been considered. It’s important to not just look at the surface evidence but the effects that could result from this change.
Related Stories:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/upshot/penny-trump-nickel-elimination.html
https://apnews.com/article/trump-penny-treasury-mint-192e3b9ad9891d50e7014997653051ba
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g7x3ze4qno
https://news.wfu.edu/2025/02/13/why-eliminating-the-penny-makes-sense/
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