Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has identified a new cost-cutting target: the US penny. DOGE posted on X that producing a single penny costs more than three cents, leading to an expense of over $179 million for US taxpayers in the 2023 fiscal year.
“The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, representing about 40% of the total 11.4 billion coins circulated,” the post stated.
According to a 2023 report, approximately 4.1 billion pennies entered circulation that year. The agency’s annual report for fiscal year 2024 indicated that the cost of producing and distributing a penny had risen to roughly 3.7 cents—an increase of more than 20% from the prior year. This rise is largely attributed to escalating metal costs, particularly zinc and copper.
The idea of eliminating the penny is not new. Advocates have long argued for its removal, noting that pennies are seldom used in everyday transactions. The shift away from physical currency, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the rise of online shopping, has further diminished the penny’s role.
This discussion extends back decades. In a 2001 episode of the political drama “The West Wing,” fictional character Sam Seaborn criticized the penny, remarking, “Majority of pennies don’t circulate. They go in jars, sock drawers.”
US CoinsMore recently, a 2023 article also made a case for discontinuing the coin. “The necessity of abolishing the penny has been obvious to those in power for so long that the inability to accomplish it has transformed the coin into a symbol of deeper rot,” the piece asserted.
Experts suggest that eliminating the penny could improve business efficiency by saving time for cashiers and store clerks. Jeff Lenard, vice president of strategic industry initiatives at the National Association of Convenience Stores, estimated that around 52 million in-person cash transactions take place daily at convenience stores.
“If we save every one of these customers 2 seconds, that’s 104 million seconds or 1,203 days,” Lenard previously told. “And that doesn’t even account for the compounded time savings from reducing wait times in line. That’s a significant boost in productivity.”
Musk has been playing an active role in the new Trump administration. President Donald Trump officially established the Department of Government Efficiency this week through an executive action.
Initially, Vivek Ramaswamy was brought on to co-lead the department with Musk, but according to the Wall Street Journal, Ramaswamy has since been removed from the role.
