By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-23 01:06:41 | Updated at 2025-01-23 04:17:43
3 hours ago
President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency is looking into stopping production of the penny to save taxpayers money.
In a post on X Tuesday night, the Elon Musk-run group pointed out that a penny now costs three cents to make - triple its value.
That cost taxpayers a whopping $179 million in fiscal year 2023, the post said.
DOGE has been tasked with coming up with recommendations on how to cut federal spending.
It's unclear if it would advise permanently killing off the penny, or just halting or trimming the penny's production.
The U.S. Mint already decreased the production of the penny between 2023 and 2024 by nearly 29 percent.
U.S. Mint data from 2024 showed a fourth straight year of declining coin production, according to CoinNews.net.
The article also pointed out that the Federal Reserve typically orders more pennies to be minted than any other denomination.
President Donald Trump 's Department of Government Efficiency is looking into stopping production of the penny to save taxpayers money
The DOGE account on X floated Tuesday night that minting billions of pennies might not be the best use of taxpayer money
Other countries have started killing off their one cent coins, including the U.S.'s neighbor to the north Canada.
Canada stopped producing 1 cent coins in 2012.
However a 2018 analysis from the Atlantic Economic Journal found that because most grocery store prices end in 9, Canadians spent about $3.27 million more in Canadian dollars at grocery stores with prices being rounded up to the nearest nickel.
While Trump has pledged to save taxpayers money with initiatives like DOGE, his No. 1 mandate from voters was for him to get food and gas prices lowered.
Voters didn't believe President Joe Biden didn't do enough to right the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump has had a hand in money matters before.
During his first term he was against the push to put abolitionist leader Harriet Tubman on the U.S. $20 bill, which is adorned by President Andrew Jackson, who signed the Indian Removal Act into law in 1830 that opened the door for the 'Trail of Tears.'
The redesigned $20 was originally planned to be unveiled in 2020, but Trump's Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said it would be delayed due to 'counterfeiting issues.'
Trump had said that replacing Jackson with Tubman was 'pure political correctness.'
Trump had a portrait of Jackson in his Oval Office during the first term - which was immediately removed by Biden.
The president signed DOGE into existance on Monday, hours after being sworn-in.
DOGE has already cut its leadership in half with former 2024 Republican hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy deciding against taking the co-leadership role with Musk that Trump assigned him.
Ramaswamy instead will focus on a 2026 Ohio gubernatorial run.
