The U.S. Treasury Department has placed its last order for pennies, ultimately planning to halt the creation of the coin once production of this final shipment is complete.
While the extinction of the penny has been a topic of discussion in political circles for decades, President Donald Trump brought the idea into the limelight once again in February 2025.
“Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” he said in a post on Truth Social. “This is so wasteful. I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”
Three months later, it’s finally happening; as of May 2025, the Treasury Dept. has officially placed its last order for the one-cent coin in a move that has received bipartisan support from both Democrats and Republicans, alike.
After Trump called pennies “wasteful” in February 2025, the US Treasury has officially placed its last order for the one-cent coin as of May 2025.
What happens now that the US has stopped making pennies?
But what does this mean for Americans’ pocketbooks and stores? While nothing is yet set in stone (or in this case, copper), stores may be required to round up prices to the nearest nickel, as per NPR.
That doesn’t mean you can’t pay with pennies anymore, though. They will continue to be considered legal tender and can be used for purchases — new ones simply won’t be made.
Other countries have also phased out their one-cent coins; both Canada and New Zealand famously stopped minting their pennies in 2012 and 1990, respectively. The Royal Canadian Mint collected pennies and melted them down to recover their valuable materials, although citizens could still use them as legal tender if they’d held onto them.
In 2024, the U.S. Mint revealed that it had lost over $85 million minting new pennies. And as told by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in 2023, less than one in five transactions are made using cash.
Unsplash.com: Matthew LancasterThe US Treasury Secretary says dimes and quarters are still profitable – but coins like pennies and nickels cost more to make than what they’re worth.
The US Treasury states that the amount of money it takes to create pennies has increased from 1.3 cents per coin to 3.69 cents over the last decade. The Mint has predicted this phase-out will save the US a whopping $56 million annually.
The penny isn’t the only coin costing the US more money than it takes to mint, though; the nickel is also a costly coin to produce, taking about 14 cents total to make.
However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is convinced that it can cut these costs by changing the composition of the nickel, adding that he “will point out that the dime is very profitable.”
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