Minting pennies is a loss-maker that Elon Musk and DOGE want to stop: America loses money while making some of its money.

Sherwood ^ | 03/23/2025 | Tom Jones

[SeekAndFind]

For almost 20 years now, the physical act of making some of our money has weirdly been a money-loser for the United States Mint. Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are apparently looking to undo that paradox.

Stop making cents

In one of the first DOGE posts on X after the department was established, it highlighted the well-known oddity that each individual penny costs more than 3 cents to make and distribute.

It also wrongly claimed that producing the coin set US taxpayers back more than $179 million in FY23. (That figure was the loss of minting pennies and nickels that year.) However, the point still stands: America loses money while making some of its money, with the cost of making each denomination only rising in 2024.

MAKING PENNIES KEEPS GETTING COSTLIER

According to the Mint’s 2024 annual report, every penny cost a relatively whopping 3.69 cents to produce, the 19th year in a row that the cost of production and distribution has outstripped the actual monetary value of the coin itself. While this phenomenon isn’t unprecedented, the current losing streak — which started in 2006, when the Mint explained that the increasing price of zinc and nickel was driving the cost of its lowest denominations higher — is the longest on record.

It’s not just one-cent pieces either…

Another day, another nickel

Nickels have managed to escape some of the heat from Musk and co. and have generally been excluded from many of the anti-penny arguments that have cropped up in recent years, often owing to the fact that we mint far fewer of them, but they’ve also cost more to make than they’re worth since 2006. Last year, the Mint spent 13.78 cents to make and distribute every nickel, meaning that the 202 million five-cent coins that entered circulation cost $27.8 million to make, almost 3x more than they’re actually worth.

The same is not true for every coin that the US Mint produces, of course, with dimes, quarters, and 50-cent pieces all costing less than face value to produce last year.

[T.B. Yoits]

[Telepathic Intruder]

You can’t even buy anything anymore that’s worth less than 25¢.

[Its All Over Except ...]

Big deal.

Saving pennies on pennies on the dollar here.

The value of the dollar has significantly eroded for 100 years under the federal reserve.

Central banks...federal reserve...petrol dollar, all so that deficit spending can can continue under every administration, Dem or Repub:

https://x.com/zerohedge/status/1638915522334187521

[SunkenCiv]

Generally I use plastic. :^)

• How much does it cost to make a penny, and are we 'losing' money on other coins? [02/10/2025]
• Trump orders Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies [02/09/2025]
• Elon Musk's DOGE is coming for the penny [01/24/2025]
• DOGE takes aim at the penny [01/22/2025]
• Bid Farewell to Pennies and Nickels! [11/27/2012]
• The penny's days are numbered (Canada ends production of cent) [03/29/2012]
• If Laws Change, 'Penny Hoarders' Could Cash In On Thousands Of Dollars [12/04/2011]
• Do Pennies make SENSE? [02/13/2009]
• Penny foolish [08/19/2007]
• Pennies May Soon Be a Thing of the Past [07/02/2006]
• Move Over, Gold... (pennies and nickels may be worth more for their metal content) [02/27/2004]
• Ban The Penny [07/05/2002]

[Oscar in Batangas]

I’ll sell FedGov some of mine...2/$0.03...FOB my piggy banks

[lee martell]

Eliminating the penny is another topic of ongoing discussion where nothing is actually changing. The other topic is ending daylight savings time.Stomp them both out asap, good and proper.

[HighSierra5]

This sounds like trying to make a case for a cashless society. I think lead is going to be worth a lot.

[jcon40]

Simple solution:

1 penny = 1 nickle
1 nickle = 1 quarter
1 dime = half a dollar
1 quarter = $1.25
Fiddy cents = $2.50
A buck = a fiver
A fiver = $25

And so on

[fidelis]

With the disappearance of the penny, just think of all the things old timers will have to explain to youngsters who have never seen a penny:

penny loafers
penny candy
a penny for your thoughts
pennies from heaven
Penny Lane
A bad penny always turns up
A penny saved is a penny earned
Penny dreadful
Penny-pinching
Penny wise and pound foolish

And so on...

[linMcHlp]

Keep producing the coins.

[Bob434]

Yes but they can make up the loss with bulk... old joke

[Paladin2]

Maybe we should have an Inflation Target of -1.0%.

[minnesota_bound]

The cost I suspect is more because it is the gov’t producing them. See if the “Franklin Mint” can do this cheaper : )

[Mr. Blond]

That’s how we fight inflation.

[VanShuyten]

Make them out of aluminum, iron, or even plastic.

[Revel]

It costs almost 14 cents to mint a nickel. So do they go next?

[Jyotishi]

“Simple solution: 1 penny = 1 nickle . . .”

Yes, make a penny worth 5 cents.

[SaveFerris]

[Stop making cents]

HEY! I’ve been doing that for years now!!

I could cut an album...

Oh, you said “cents”.....

Never mind...

[gundog]

The San Francisco Mint was making decent money selling quarters with the “S” mint mark, for some years. It’s not like the mints can’t crank out collector sets at a premium.