The Ministry of Finance reveals its plan to kill the Penny

Cnn
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The US Ministry of Finance issues the production of the Penny and will soon stop circulation to bring new one-cent coins into circulation, the department said in a statement on Thursday.

The news of the decision was first reported by Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Finance said the government raised its final order from Penny Blank this month, and the United States Mint would continue to produce Pennys as long as there is an inventory of Penny Blanks. You can still use consumers with pennies for purchases. Without bringing new pennies into circulation, companies that complete cash transactions must round off the next nickel or round off the next nickel.

The move is no surprise. The production of a penny costs more than the value of the medal. President Donald Trump said in February that he had instructed the US -Münzhaut to avoid the costs on Pennies.

“For far too long, the United States have shaped Pennys who literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful! I have instructed my secretary of the US finance ministry not to produce the production of new pennies anymore. Let us tear out the waste from our budget of the big nations, even if it is a penny at a time,” said Trump in a post in a post the social media when he returned to Washington in Washington in February.

Trump actually underlines the cost argument – Penny’s cost more than three Cent each produce.

But the cost of a cent could be a smaller problem than the alternative. This is because the coin loses even more money with every nickel it produces. Each nickel costs 13.8 cents with 11 cents production costs and 2.8 cents administrative and distribution costs. These figures relate to the recent government of the government, which ended in September.

People have spoken of getting rid of the Penny for years.

During the last financial year, the coin tried to reduce these losses by making far fewer nickel – only 202 million, 86% compared to the 1.4 billion nickel, which they have shaped in the past two years. This is also far less than the 3.2 Billon Pennies, which it did in 2024, the 4.1 billion, which did it in 2023 and 5.4 billion, which she did in 2022.

In the treasury declaration, her plans for nickel production were not addressed. It estimated an immediate savings for taxpayers of 56 million US dollars from Penny production.

“In view of the cost savings for the taxpayer, this is just another example that our administration decreases waste for the American taxpayer and makes the government more efficient for the American people,” it said.

Even if the coin only has to achieve 850,000 additional nickel in 2025 to satisfy the demand, this would wipe off the savings by eliminating the penny. If the coin again achieves 1.4 million nickel a year, this would cost 78 million US dollars more than all savings from the pennies that they no longer produce.

The mint would probably have to make more nickel than that – probably in the range of 2 million to 2.5 million per year if it permanently fell off the Pennies to the production of currencies, said Mark Weller, Executive of the Americans for Common Cents, a trade group that was mainly financed by Artafn, which delivers the contract for the contract, which is provided by ArtAzn, which delivers the contract. place.

“In most countries, the lowest coin coin is the most characterized coin,” he said.

But the idea of ​​dropping the penny is supported by others, including some dealers.

In the past, the National Association of Convenience Stores has agreed that the Penny starts to accelerate the transaction period, if only by one or two seconds for every customer who pays cash.

“Convenience stores sell many products, but what they really sell is the service speed,” said Jeff Lenard, a group spokesman, in February to CNN. He could not say whether the nickel would increase, but he said that without the Penny Cash transactions would be rounded on the next nickel.

And the United States would not be the first to throw their least valuable coin. Canada stopped playing his pennies in 2012 and fully stopped in 2013.

One reason why the US government has to produce so many pennies every year is that a large percentage of them does not remain in circulation. They are hidden in Penny glasses or garbage drawers at home, or they fall on the floor and people don’t even bother to pick them up.

Many people leave the pennies behind, which they receive as a change in the shells of many retailers. These dishes also keep nickel, which only have a few uses.

“If people leave a monetary unit at the cash register for the next customer, the unit is too small to be useful,” said Gregory Mankiw, Professor of Harvard economy and former chairman of the President of the President of the Economic Advisor under President George W. Bush.