Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE, aims to start trimming trillions in federal spending with an unlikely plan to get the ball rolling.

In a tweet on Tuesday, DOGE — an agency formed by the Trump administration — pointed out how it costs the U.S. Mint about 3 cents to make each penny—yet it’s only worth 1 cent. Taxpayers shoulder most of the costs, roughly $179 million in FY2023, to mint 4.5 billion pennies, the agency claimed.

Are the penny’s days numbered?

But the penny isn’t alone in its expensive ways—minting a nickel costs 14 cents, and with zinc prices soaring, the penny’s production costs have only risen, now topping 3.7 cents per coin, CBS News reported, citing the U.S. Mint’s 2024 data.

The U.S. wouldn’t be breaking new ground if it were to halt penny production. Canada stopped minting its one-cent coin in 2012. The decision was made due to the high cost of producing pennies. At the time, it cost about 1.6 cents to produce each penny, while the coin’s face value was just one cent.

To replace pennies in cash transactions, prices were rounded to the nearest five cents. This rounding practice applied to cash payments, but electronic payments were not affected.

Meanwhile, Musk is Go to Source to See Full Article
Author: Anthony Patrick