Of course, the big story in numismatics this week is President Trump's order to stop producing the U.S. one-cent piece or "penny". Our late friend and contributor Dick Johnson would be pleased, as he often wrote to promote that idea. Headline writers at least had fun riffing on the cents/sense homonym. Here's a smattering of articles and opinions.

Not being one to hang out on social media, the first reference I saw related to the Mint came in a January 6th Washington Post article about Trump donor and advisor Elon Musk. -Editor

"It is on X, not in some office or restaurant, that Republican politicians, tech industry executives and conservative influencers gather to post messages praising Musk's work, backing his stances and posting fodder for his arguments. The implicit hope is that Musk will reply or repost them approvingly to the platform's largest audience — and now that he's setting priorities for the Trump administration, perhaps even act on them.

On Sunday, Ryan Petersen, CEO of the San Francisco-based logistics firm Flexport, reached Musk directly with an X post that began, "Dear @DOGE please look into the U.S. Mint in San Francisco," suggesting it should be shut down and repurposed. An hour later, at 4:18 a.m. Eastern time, Musk replied, "Noted," ..."

While many were watching a lopsided Super Bowl game the evening of Sunday the 10th, Trump was readying an announcement, likely choosing the moment for maximum exposure (or ability to divert attention from other things). The Washington Post and New York Times covered the topic well. -Editor

"President Donald Trump says he has ordered the U.S. Treasury to stop minting pennies, calling their production "wasteful."

"For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents," Trump said in a Truth Social post Sunday night. "Let's rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it's a penny at a time."

"No other official announcement on penny production has been made, and Treasury did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment. It was not immediately clear whether the president has the unilateral power to take a coin out of circulation; Congress oversees the production of coins and operations of the U.S. Mint, which falls under the Treasury Department, according to the agency.

"The debate over whether to continue making lower-denomination coins has gone on for years, particularly as costs to produce them have steadily risen."

It's a well-written article despite its use of the incorrect term "penny". As noted in the past, I've gotten over being a scold on that losing-battle issue. While correctly referencing the U.S. Mint website, the reporters do slip up by misinterpreting the first year of the cent's production (it was 1793, not 1792) -Editor

A Washington Post Opinion piece the same day took a more detailed look at the composition and cost of U.S. coins. -Editor

"The U.S. Mint, as it turns out, has a lot of interesting information about the historical production of coins. I learned Monday morning that we used to make a 3-cent piece, as well as a $20 coin. Both of those might be fun to revive.

"Coin production faces the same problem as everything else: inflation. Pennies, as you probably know, aren't really made out of copper but, instead, mostly zinc. Nickels, dimes and quarters, weirdly, are mostly copper. The U.S. Mint also has a nice chart on the composition of coins over time.

"Pennies have cost more to make than they have been worth for some time now. Pennies cost more than a penny to make as of 2006; nickels cost more than a nickel to make that same year. Over the following 18 years, the cost of making a penny has surged to about 3.7 pennies, while the cost of making a nickel is now about 2.8 nickels.

"So why target pennies instead of nickels? Because the Mint makes far more pennies. In 2024, the Mint shipped nearly 3.2 billion pennies. It shipped only 202 million nickels. The net loss from producing pennies was about five times the net loss from producing nickels.

"We must note that, as with so many of Trump's other second-term pronouncements, permanently ending production of pennies would require Congress to act. We will see whether the Republican-controlled House and Senate take up this issue, or whether Big Zinc once again throws its weight around the halls of the Capitol."

"There are options to keep the denomination, including plastic or fiber of some sort - but it's not particularly useful in commerce these days. Who even bothers to bend over to pick up a cent on the ground these days? I've seen homeless people toss cents from the cups they get change in! But still...tradition!

"As for politics, the Republicans haven't wanted to get rid of it because it has Lincoln on it, the first Republican (though he would not be one today after the parties changed their base during the Civil Rights Movement). Democrats haven't wanted to get rid of it because they didn't want to be attacked for getting rid of Lincoln, but letting FDR stay on a coin (Kennedy too, though halves are almost non-existent now). So while it would have made economic sense to get rid of it, it was very, very slight economic sense at best. The mint makes money on every other denomination and could easily absorb a loss on the cent (which should have gone to plastic or fiber long ago, or been greatly reduced in size as was the case for the 1-cent euro pieces), but copper and zinc lobbies are strong..."

Ah, the lobbyists. You knew it wouldn't be long before we started hearing from them. This CNN Business article cites one argument. Bloomberg also repeated some lobbyist talking points, -Editor

"For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!" he said in a post on his Truth Social platform. "Let's rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it's a penny at a time."

"Trump actually undersold the cost argument — pennies cost more than 3 cents to produce.

"But there's a problem with his plan: Phasing out the penny could result in needing to make more nickels, and the US Treasury Department loses far more money on every nickel than it does on every penny.

"Without the penny, the volume of nickels in circulation would have to rise to fill the gap in small-value transactions. Far from saving money, eliminating the penny shifts and amplifies the financial burden," said American for Common Cents, a pro-penny group funded primarily by Artazn, the company that has the contract to provide the blanks used to make pennies.

Lobbyists love to use math, but only selectively. 3.7 cents apiece on nearly 3.2 billion pennies would save $118.4 million. Just how many more five-cent pieces would be needed to fill the gap? Today we make 220 million/year. At 14 cents apiece they cost $30.8 million. Even if nickel production would triple there would still be savings to be had.

All of this speculation is moot of course, because Congress makes the final decision, and there will be plenty of proposals and lobbying between now and then, and plenty of time for the decision to stop making cents to begin affecting everyday commerce.

I've not seen any effects with my own spending. I still make several cash transactions a week, and still give and take cents. Maybe there are so many non-cash transactions that no one will care or notice. Are readers seeing any effects yet?

As an Executive Order the directive lacks permanence, and could be overturned by the next President at the stroke of another pen, as we've already seen with the see-saw changes in control of the White House over recent elections - kind of an idiotic slow-motion face-slapping contest. "Your EOs are stupid!" "No, YOUR EOs are stupid!!" -Editor

Some outlets focused on impact to collectors. -Editor

"How could that trickle down to local coin and penny collectors? The penny, often lost in pockets and couch cushions, is the centerpiece for some. The obvious answer is that a halt in production would increase value, but a local coin collector and antique store owner says it may not be that simple.

"There are billions of pennies in circulation, and until now, more every year. This leaves penny collections oversaturated. With the pause in production, Simmons sees the phasing out of the penny as a natural progression.

"We don't produce $2 bills anymore. We don't produce, you know, gold coins anymore," he said.

"As for their potential increase in value, Simmons says new pennies are never more valuable than their assigned worth.

"It's just another spot to fill in a book. There's lots of things to collect and lots of books to fill without worrying about a 2026 or 2027 coin not being there," he said.

"It could take generations for — sometimes decades old — pennies to gain substantial value. Regardless, the scarcity tends to generate interest."

Well said. But the Mint could lobby for a carve-out for collectible cents that would earn the government far more than their cost. Continued annual proof and mint set inclusion are one obvious option, but the alternatives are endless. -Editor

"Rare coin and precious metal collector Jonathan Aminov told CBS News he doesn't predict a huge jump in price for the penny.

"I get calls about pennies all day long," said Aminov, who owns Big Apple Coins in Manhattan.

"He said the U.S. won't see a foreseeable shortage of pennies anytime because there are too many coins in circulation.

"Aminov said collectors might see interest in the 2025 penny because that was the year the coin stopped being minted. If 500 million pennies were ordered for the year and 50 million were minted, then those coins are going to be more desirable, he said.

"He also cautioned that it would be difficult to obtain big prices for pennies as the coin would have to be extremely rare saying, "Pennies are a bit of a longshot."

"However, the end of penny production can bring new interest and collectors into a hobby that Aminov says could be a good thing. And once someone is hooked on coin collecting it's hard to get out, he says.

"It's easy to fall in love with coins," said Aminov. "And the people who love it really, really love it. They spend obscene amounts of money to purchase their coin and then stare at it for hours in love with its beauty and history."

I would agree that the publicity around this idea and the eventual retreat of cents from circulation will likely lead to further interest in collecting from the general public. Always has, always will. Collecting in the U.S. got its biggest boosts from the demise of the large cent in 1858 and the retreat from silver in the mid-1960s. -Editor

The Mints aren't going anywhere, not the main ones, anyway. The Denver Gazette seized the moment to tour the Denver Mint. -Editor

"A group of 30 tourists stood in the foyer of the Denver Mint on Tuesday afternoon, surrounded by the sparkling marble sourced from Vermont when the building was built in 1904.

"An American eagle and flag stood above them on the flecked wall, engraved with gold and platinum — a monument to the importance the Denver historical building has had on the country for more than a century.

"Just a few yards away, 54 coin pressers, multiple sorters and pick-and-place robots buzzed away, continuously stamping circular materials to make the coins the United States Federal Reserve Bank then uses for circulation.

"Even if the penny was scratched from the future currency inventory, the mint will continue its longstanding history of pressing coins and giving out hour-long tours to golden-eyed visitors."

Here's a short article summarizing what happened when other countries got rid of their smallest coins. -Editor

Canada
When Canada got rid of its penny in 2012, it allowed the coins to remain in circulation and legal tender but encouraged merchants to round monetary amounts to the nearest 5-cent increment and implemented a consumer education program so shoppers would become accustomed to the idea. Today, the practice of rounding up or down to the nearest 5-cent increment when paying with cash has become as ordinary to Canadians as being a fan of ice hockey.

New Zealand
New Zealand eliminated 1- and 2-cent coins in 1990, and then took things a step further in 2006 with the elimination of its 5-cent coin. Researchers found that prices actually went down instead of up. One government official suggested that market competition was enough to keep retailers from trying to game the system.

This Washington Post Opinion piece waxes nostalgic: "Although its face value is close to zero, the penny is priceless as a bit of Americana." -Editor

"But if this is the beginning of the end for the penny, let us fondly, if fleetingly, salute the less-than-majestic but nevertheless swell part it has played in the country's life. A penny could never buy you much, but it could buy you something: It was no coincidence that drugstores placed penny-a-crank gum-ball machines near their front doors, knowing that the colorful sight would extract the departing customers' last cents. Penny arcades promised pleasure on a budget. The penny loafer, with the slits on each shoe for the coin, went from utilitarian to sublime because of it.

"The penny was a synonym for value, shorthand for what-can-you-lose sales pitches: the sound of "one red cent" from the mouths of carnival barkers lured you to the tent, even as you sensed you were about to fork over more than that. Merchandisers set their price points at $5.99 or $24.99 because they knew the missing final penny would do the heavy lifting for them by making the item feel less expensive than it was."

"Currently, there are bills in the Senate and the House, S.1228 - Coin Metal Modification Authorization and Cost Savings Act of 2023, and H.R.2817 to SAVE money in the making of our nickel, dime and quarter.

"Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson need to take this seriously.

"We lost $85.3 million in 1¢ coins and $17.7 million in 5¢ coins, last year, HOWEVER . . . through Seigniorage, we made sufficient seigniorage from dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins, to offset any losses.

"Additionally, the seigniorage made on all paper money is overwhelming.

"According to the Federal Reserve's website, it costs 3.2¢ to make a dollar bill, so we are making a 97¢ profit on each one produced.

"For every one hundred dollar bill produced at 9.4¢, we make a whopping $99.90 cent profit.

"So even with some losses on the smaller coins, those losses do not come close to comparing with the profits we are making through seigniorage."

Thanks, everyone. Thanks also to Leon Saryan, Howard Berlin, Andrew Pollock for passing along additional articles on the topic. -Editor