RICHMOND, Va. — The lowly penny, the forgotten mainstay of coin jars and automotive cupholders all over the place, could quickly be no extra.
President Donald Trump introduced Sunday he’s ordered his administration to stop manufacturing of the 1-cent coin, whose shopping for energy is gone its prime.
Advocates for ditching the penny cite its excessive manufacturing price — presently virtually 4 cents per penny, in response to the U.S. Mint — and restricted utility. Followers of the penny cite its usefulness in charity drives and relative cut price in manufacturing prices in contrast with the nickel, which prices virtually 14 cents to mint.
Trump’s shock order comes after many years of unsuccessful efforts to pitch the penny.
“Solely custom explains our cussed attachment to the penny. However typically traditions get ridiculous,” the Farmers’ Almanac stated in its 1989 version.
Right here’s a take a look at some questions surrounding Trump’s order.
Sure, in response to authorized scholar Laurence H. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb College Professor of Constitutional Regulation Emeritus at Harvard College.
U.S. code provides the Treasury Secretary the authority to mint and situation cash “in quantities the secretary decides are obligatory to satisfy the wants of the USA.”
If Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent decides the quantity obligatory for the penny is zero, he’s inside his authorized rights, Tribe stated.
“Not like plenty of what the brand new administration has been doing pursuant to the flood of government orders since Jan. 20, this motion appears to me solely lawful and totally constitutional,” Tribe stated, referring to the aggressive government motion Trump’s taken on different points since taking workplace.
Congress, which dictates forex specs like the dimensions and steel content material of cash, may make Trump’s order everlasting by means of legislation. However previous congressional efforts to ditch the penny have failed.
Pennies are principally made from zinc, and the American zinc foyer has been a serious opponent to strategies that the penny be eradicated.
It is dependent upon what you imply by circulation.
Pennies are the most well-liked coin made by the U.S. Mint, which reported making 3.2 billion of them final 12 months. That’s greater than half of all the brand new cash it made final 12 months.
MIT professor Jeff Gore, who based Residents to Retire the Penny, stated cash are supposed to remain in circulation for about 30 years and that within the final three many years the U.S. Mint has made about 250 billion pennies.
However, he says, “as a result of no one desires to make use of pennies, they fall out of lively circulation a lot sooner than different cash.”
If pennies sit in drawer for a decade, Gore asks, “Does that qualify as being in circulation?”
The expertise in different international locations suggests no.
Canada began phasing out its penny a dozen years in the past and urged retailer homeowners to spherical costs to the closest nickel for money transactions. Digital purchases have been nonetheless billed to the closest cent. The transfer got here after New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, and others dropped their lowest-denomination cash.
After dropping the penny or its equal, these international locations haven’t regarded again.
Trump’s order, which he introduced in a social media publish as he was departing New Orleans after watching the primary half of the Tremendous Bowl, was the most recent in his administration’s rapid-fire efforts to chop authorities prices.
“Let’s rip the waste out of our nice nation’s finances, even when it’s a penny at a time,” Trump wrote in his publish, which was gentle on particulars about plans for a post-penny future.
After Canada stopped minting new pennies, it started recycling them for his or her “invaluable” copper and zinc, in response to a 2022 report from the Canadian Mint.