Nevada Senator Wants to Eliminate the Penny, Agrees with Trump

Posted on: February 12, 2025, 06:48h. 

Last updated on: February 12, 2025, 10:01h.

Ed Silverstein @casinoorgedsilv Read More

Expertise: Legal, Tribal Gaming.

• US Senator Jacky Rosen says eliminating the penny will save taxpayer money
• It costs about 3.7 cents to make and distribute every penny
• Eliminating the penny may require an act of Congress
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  US Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), has thrown her support behind President Donald Trump’s recent order to eliminate the penny.

Rosen, like Trump, argues that making pennies ends up losing money given the cost of production.

“I’m not afraid to embrace a good idea when it comes from the other side of the aisle, and I agree with President Trump on this,” Rosen said in a recent post on X.

Eliminating the penny is a commonsense move that’ll save taxpayer dollars,” she added.

Gov. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), also added his support to eliminating the penny.

“As well as saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, there are major environmental benefits to eliminating the penny. This is a great move,” Polis said.

Last weekend, Trump told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to stop making the 1-cent coins.

“For far too long, the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

Elon Musk Supports Idea

The idea was backed by the controversial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is looking for waste and fraud in the federal government, and which is led by billionaire Elon Musk.

“The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023,” DOGE said in a post on X. “The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced.”

Costs 3.7 Cents to Make, Distribute

It costs about 3.7 cents to make and distribute every penny, according to the report. Because of the increasing cost of zinc and copper, which are used to make pennies, the price to make the coin recently jumped more than 20%, according to a US Mint 2024 report, Forbes reported.

Prior to the Kennedy administration, pennies were made out of copper. Since then, they use copper plating. They continue to have the image of President Abraham Lincoln on the coin.

Many other nations, including Canada, Norway, New Zealand, Finland, Australia, and the Netherlands have eliminated the penny.

Still, it’s unclear if Trump can unilaterally order the Mint to stop making pennies. Congress may need to pass relevant legislation.

The process of discontinuing the penny in the US is a little unclear,” Robert K. Triest, an economics professor at Northeastern University, who was a former vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, told The Hill.

“It would likely require an act of Congress, but the secretary of the treasury might be able to simply stop the minting of new pennies,” he added.