The Push to Purge Pennies From Circulation

The push to put pennies out of circulation that was kicked off during the Super Bowl by President Donald Trump ultimately depends on Congress

President Donald Trump's push to eliminate pennies from circulation, which he highlighted during the Super Bowl, ultimately hinges on the decision of Congress. Despite several attempts to discontinue the 232-year-old coin, beginning with a proposal during President Gerald Ford's administration, Congress has consistently shown reluctance to cancel the penny.

While there is a growing movement to eliminate the penny, with fewer Americans using it in everyday transactions, there are both economic and sentimental arguments in favor of preserving the 1-cent piece, including appeals from companies involved in producing the nation's currency.

To date, numerous bills aimed at halting penny production have languished in both the House and Senate in recent decades.

The latest proposal, introduced last week, is led by Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., following the efforts of previous Arizona lawmakers like the late Reps. Jim Kolbe and John McCain.

However, unlike their proposals, Schweikert's bill would temporarily halt the production of both pennies and nickels to allow for a study on whether to maintain the suspension, ultimately discontinue production, or reinstate it.

Critics of Kolbe's and McCain's initiatives alleged that their primary goal was to boost mining in Arizona, which produces roughly two-thirds of U.S. copper, by compelling people to switch from pennies to nickels. Notably, pennies are about 98 percent zinc with a thin copper coating, while nickels are 75 percent copper.

Kolbe maintained that his main concern was the rising cost of making pennies, which was starting to exceed 1 cent. In a May 2006 conversation with CQ Roll Call's Ryan Kelly, he stated, "I was warning that the cost of producing the coin would soon surpass its purchasing value. Everyone acknowledged that when we got to that point, it would be time to act. That time is now."

At that time, it cost about 1.4 cents to make one penny. The U.S. Mint now reports that the cost is 3.69 cents per coin and that it incurred a net loss of $85.3 million after spending about $117 million to ship 3.17 billion pennies in fiscal 2024.

Another bill, sponsored by Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., would authorize the Mint to propose a new metal mix for coins to reduce production costs. In a statement regarding the legislation, Amodei said, "This bill proposes a modernized approach to manufacturing our currency by allowing the Mint to modify the metal composition of coins with more affordable materials."

However, such a measure is unlikely to appease the residents of Greene County, Tenn., where the Artazn LLC plant, currently the sole producer of all penny blanks in the nation, is situated.

"Save the penny!" Jeff Taylor, head of the Greene County Partnership, posted on social media on Feb. 10, a day after Trump's call to discontinue the coin's production, according to The Greeneville Sun. "For those that do not know, every penny starts in Greene County. Save jobs in Greene County!" In a statement to WVLT News last week, Greene County Mayor Kevin Morrison disclosed that the factory employs 300 people.

In contrast, President Ford's Treasury secretary in 1976, William E. Simon, held a differing opinion on the penny. "Get rid of the damn thing," he said, arguing that it was a waste of money. "If we'd abolished it years ago, we wouldn't have had to open the Denver Mint."

President Barack Obama also considered the penny to be "obsolete," but he doubted that most Americans would part with it, as reported by ABC News at the time. "It's one of those things where I think people get attached emotionally to the way things have been," Obama said in 2013. "We remember our piggy banks and counting out all the pennies and then taking them in and getting a dollar bill or a couple of dollars from it and maybe that's the reason people haven’t gotten around to it.”

During the Super Bowl, Trump presented the economic case against pennies in a post on Truth Social. "For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents," he wrote. "I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let's rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it's a penny at a time."

Several countries, including Canada, Brazil, and others, have already discontinued their versions of the 1-cent coin. According to the U.S. Mint, its output of all types of coins has dropped significantly, from about 15 billion produced five years ago to 5.87 billion last year, as cash is now used in only around 16 percent of consumer transactions, according to the