President Donald Trump wants to ditch the penny.
In a post on his social media site Truth Social, Trump said on Sunday night he had directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent “to stop producing new pennies.”
“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful,” Trump wrote.
“Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” he added.
It was not immediately clear if Trump had the power to end penny production.
The U.S. Mint said on its website that it “derives its authority from the United States Congress.”
“Congress authorizes every coin and most medals that the U.S. Mint manufactures and oversees the Mint’s operations under its Public Enterprise Fund (PEF),” it explained.
Still, pennies have long been a symbol of mounting government expenses, costing more than three and half cents each to product last year.
Canada did away with its pennies more than a decade ago and Australia got rid of the coin in the 90s.