Due to inflation, it now costs a nickel for your thoughts instead of a penny.
Over the weekend, President Trump ordered the U.S. Treasury to stop minting pennies, citing wastefulness. The price of producing a single penny continues to rise, and it now costs almost 3.7 cents to produce a penny, up from 3.1 cents the year before, according to The Associated Press.
“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday. “I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency set its sights on the penny in January, according to CNN. But economists and other experts in the monetary industry don’t quite understand why it’s such a big deal to Musk and Trump.
According to NBC News, penny production costs $192 million a year, which is about 4% of the Mint’s budget — but only 0.00003% of the federal budget, which is why economists think pennies are expendable.
On top of that, businesses will have to round to the nearest nickel without the penny, which may lead to a slight inflationary effect, depending on whether they round up or down.
The biggest impact would be felt by cash-paying consumers, but experts say it won’t be too dramatic. Gates Little, CEO of Alabama-based Southern Bank, told NBC he thinks the penny won’t be missed.
“Eliminating the U.S. penny wouldn’t make any difference in the economy,” Little said. “I can’t think of how it could hurt.”
