The penny is about to drop in America – for the final time.
President Donald Trump says the small coin is “so wasteful” and should be abolished.
The US Mint has made its final order of penny blanks (flat metal discs that are made into coins) and expects to stop making new pennies once those are cashed out.
Mr Trump claims the coin costs the country a mint – and the US Treasury seems to agree with him, expecting annual savings of $56m (£41m) in reduced material costs once the low-value denomination is no more.
“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social in February. “This is so wasteful!”
“I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”
Made from zinc with a copper coating, the penny was one of the first coins made by the US Mint after its establishment in 1792 and there are now around 114 billion currently in circulation – that’s 285,000 tonnes of metal.
However they are greatly underutilised, the Treasury says.
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Advocates for ditching the penny cite its high production cost – almost four cents per penny now – and limited utility.
However, others point to its usefulness in charity drives and cheaper production cost compared with the nickel coin, which costs almost 14 cents to mint.
Jay Zagorsky, professor of markets, public policy, and law at Boston University, said he supports the move to end penny production but warned that US Congress must legislate that prices be rounded up in order to eliminate demand for the coin.
