President Donald Trump is working to erase national debt, but it comes with a price: Children will no longer make wishes and toss pennies into public fountains. President Trump declared during the Feb. 9 Super Bowl that the United States will stop minting pennies.
With all of the changes Trump is bringing — from renaming the Gulf of America to a long list of budget cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency — most people haven’t had the time to consider the effects of continuing to mint pennies. With the consistent devaluing of our coins and the massive changes required to resurrect our economy, however, we can be confident that discontinuing pennies is the right decision for America.
“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “This is so wasteful! I have instructed my secretary of the U.S. Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”
Each year, the costs of penny minting and circulation increase. According to PBS, in the last fiscal year, the U.S. Mint lost $85 million purely on pennies. Each penny costs 3.7 cents to mint — 370% of its value.
Trump’s penny-cut is a logical decision that many other countries have also made. Canada stopped minting its least valuable coin in 2012, according to CBS, and America got rid of the half-cent coin in 1857. Australia, Sweden, and New Zealand have all also eliminated their least valuable coins. Even Barack Obama expressed support for eliminating pennies in a 2013 interview with John Green.
From a financial perspective, it’s clear that we need a change in our coin market. While we have yet to see how this will develop, pennies are the first step in the right direction. A penny saved is literally 3.7 pennies earned, yet nickels cost a whopping 13.8 cents to mint — 276% of their value. Removing pennies will make nickels the least valuable coin. According to NPR, eliminating pennies could lead to prices rounding up to the nearest five cents, increasing nickel production, which would cost even more than it would to continue making pennies. Dimes still cost only 5.2 cents to mint, but the price of materials continues to go up.
Kimberly Amadeo from The Balance Money pointed out that, as of today, earning one cent by stopping to pick up a penny on the sidewalk is actually a waste of time if you take longer than 5 seconds, as a minimum wage job pays one cent every 5 seconds. Penny circulation in general has greatly subsided as the coin’s value fades with inflation. This consistent devaluing of our coins is becoming apparent as virtual transactions become more common.
AP News pointed out that Trump may not even have the power to completely eliminate pennies if he wanted to. The president can technically order the Treasury Department to stop minting them, but only an act of Congress can officially cut pennies from circulation by declaring them no longer legal tender.
Since Trump is merely attempting to stop the production of pennies rather than halting their circulation altogether, the impact will not be as negative as naysayers claim. Instead, this is a necessary next step towards fixing our economy.
The positive effects of eliminating the penny outweigh the cons. Citizens have suggested that virtually useless coins like pennies are bothersome and time-consuming to pay with. The loss of inconvenient pennies could reinvigorate cash transactions.
For far too long, America has been bogged down by administration and red tape, awaiting a president who will finally take real action. Trump is making the best decision he can with the information he has available right now.
Losing pennies does not mean we are losing our national identity, either. Lincoln won’t disappear from our history books just because his face isn’t around on copper. Trump is attacking reality head-on with this decision.
Yet, I do sympathize with the reluctant sentimentalist. Pennies have been a staple of my life. My brother and I have amassed an expansive pressed penny collection from the countless places we’ve been. A core memory of my childhood was paying one cent to ride Sandy: the iconic brown electronic horse that is a staple of every Meijer store.
But looking forward, if paying for my future children to ride Sandy with Apple Pay instead of a penny means that they will grow up in a nation with less national debt, I’ll happily make that sacrifice.
Rather than looking at the pennies as a loss of nostalgia, choose to focus on the positives. Your half-finished penny collection from fourth grade? Way more valuable now. Your kitchen junk drawer? A copper mine of national sentiment. The bottom of your purse? A museum of artifacts. Hold on to your pennies while you can. Trump isn’t forcing us into the future. He’s preparing us for the current reality, one penny at a time.
Grace Novak is a freshman studying the liberal arts.
