President Donald Trump said in February 2025 that he had directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to stop producing new pennies, citing the cost of manufacturing the one-cent coin as part of his push to reduce federal spending.
In a Feb. 9 post on Truth Social, Trump said the United States had been minting pennies that cost more than their face value to produce. He wrote, “Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.â€
The underlying cost concern was well established. According to the U.S. Mint, the total cost of producing and distributing a penny had risen to 3.69 cents per coin, up from 1.42 cents a decade earlier. In fiscal year 2024, pennies represented 57% of the Mint’s circulating-coin production, with approximately 3.2 billion produced and shipped.
What Trump's announcement meant at the time
Trump's statement was an instruction to the Treasury Department rather than an immediate disappearance of pennies from circulation. The U.S. Mint operates within the Treasury Department, and federal law authorizes the Treasury secretary to mint and issue one-cent coins in quantities considered necessary to meet the needs of the United States.
The announcement also did not make existing pennies invalid. Stopping production of new circulating pennies is different from eliminating the denomination or declaring coins already in circulation worthless.
At the time of Trump's announcement, questions remained about how the administration would implement the change and whether additional congressional action would be needed for broader issues such as permanent statutory changes or nationwide rules for rounding cash transactions.
Production later ended
Later in 2025, the administration moved forward with the plan. The Treasury Department stopped ordering new penny blanks, and on Nov. 12, 2025, the U.S. Mint struck the final circulating one-cent coin at its Philadelphia facility, formally ending a 232-year production run for circulating pennies.
The Mint has said that suspending circulating-penny production is expected to save approximately $56 million a year in production costs. Limited numismatic versions may still be produced for collectors.
Pennies remain legal tender
Ending production did not eliminate pennies already held by consumers, businesses and financial institutions. The Treasury Department says existing pennies remain legal tender and retain their one-cent value. The Federal Reserve can continue recirculating available coins even though the government is no longer manufacturing new circulating pennies.
As supplies gradually decline, cash transactions can create practical rounding questions because the nickel becomes the smallest newly produced circulating coin. Electronic payments are unaffected because they can still be settled to the exact cent.
The move marked a significant change for a denomination that dates to the earliest years of U.S. coinage. The penny was first issued in 1793, and Abraham Lincoln has appeared on the coin since 1909. While debate over the penny's usefulness continued for decades, rising production costs ultimately became a central argument for suspending its manufacture.
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