Cents or Nonsense?

That’s the crux of America’s penny problem. For decades, Mint directors, politicians, and others have appealed to Congress—which authorizes the manufacture of the nation’s currency—to retire the coin, but to no avail. Lawmakers haven’t thought the penny was worth the time it would take to get rid of it. The $119 million the government spent making pennies in 2024 pales in comparison to the trillions it spends each year to keep itself running.

But calls for the coin’s elimination keep coming. Last month, President Trump ordered the U.S. Treasury to stop minting new pennies, calling it unnecessary government spending. But it’s unclear whether he has the power to do this.

“Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” he said in a social media post.

Congress authorizes the manufacture of the nation’s currency. For decades, Mint directors, politicians, and others have appealed to Congress to retire the coin. But lawmakers haven’t thought the penny was worth the time it would take to get rid of it. The $119 million the government spent making pennies in 2024 is small in comparison to the trillions it spends each year to keep itself running.

But calls for the coin’s elimination keep coming. Last month, President Trump ordered the U.S. Treasury to stop minting new pennies. He called it unnecessary government spending. But it’s unclear whether he has the power to do this.

“Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time,” he said in a social media post.

The federal government began minting pennies with the establishment of the U.S. Mint, in 1792. Long-running government programs can be hard to change, especially when multiple agencies share responsibility. In the case of the penny, that’s Congress, the U.S. Mint, and the Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, which orders coins from the Mint.

Other countries, including New Zealand and Australia, got rid of their pennies. In Canada, which stopped making them in 2012, cash transactions get rounded to the nearest nickel, so customers pay, for instance, $3.80 for something calculated to cost $3.79.

Proponents of the penny say rounding up amounts to imposing an extra sales tax on some products, and Americans would never go for such a system.

Others disagree. Robert Whaples, an economist at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, studied tens of thousands of convenience-store transactions and found that rounded totals worked in the customer’s favor about as often as they didn’t. Given the tax on their time, he says, people would rather forgo the nuisance of counting change.

“The average American earns about a penny every two seconds,” he says. “If it takes you two seconds to use the penny, its value is wiped out.”

The federal government began minting pennies when the U.S. Mint was established in 1792. Government programs can be hard to change, especially when multiple agencies share responsibility. For the penny, that’s Congress, the U.S. Mint, and the Federal Reserve. (The Federal Reserve, the nation’s central bank, orders coins from the Mint.)

Other countries, including New Zealand and Australia, got rid of their pennies. In Canada, which stopped making them in 2012, cash transactions get rounded to the nearest nickel. So customers pay, for example, $3.80 for something calculated to cost $3.79.

Supporters of the penny say rounding up amounts to imposing an extra sales tax on some products. They think Americans would never go for such a system.

Others disagree. Robert Whaples, an economist at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, studied tens of thousands of convenience-store transactions. He found that rounded totals worked in the customer’s favor about as often as they didn’t. Given the tax on their time, he says, people would rather forgo the annoyance of counting change.

“The average American earns about a penny every two seconds,” he says. “If it takes you two seconds to use the penny, its value is wiped out.”

There are other arguments for keeping the penny. The pro-penny lobby Americans for Common Cents lists some of them on its website: People donate their pennies to charities. People with lower incomes or without bank accounts rely on pennies. Two-thirds of Americans want to keep the coin in circulation, according to an Americans for Common Sense poll.

But experts say even those reasons have begun to fade. Most people with low incomes make cashless transactions on apps like Cash App, says Sarah Halpern-Meekin, a sociologist at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And Walmart, which employs more people than any other company in the U.S., pays employees who don’t provide banking information with cash cards. There’s no evidence, many experts say, that a significant number of Americans depend on cash.

There are other arguments for keeping the penny. The pro-penny lobby Americans for Common Cents lists some of them on its website. Reasons include: People donate their pennies to charities. People with lower incomes or without bank accounts rely on pennies. Two-thirds of Americans want to keep the coin in circulation, according to an Americans for Common Sense poll.

But experts say even those reasons don’t matter as much now. Most people with low incomes make cashless transactions on apps like Cash App, says Sarah Halpern-Meekin, a sociologist at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And Walmart pays employees who don’t provide banking information with cash cards. There’s no evidence, many experts say, that a significant number of Americans depend on cash.

Yet however worthless it may be, getting rid of the iconic coin may seem to many people a huge loss.

“So much of who we are as Americans is presented on our currency,” says Andrew Keinsley, an economist at Weber State University, in Utah, who’s on the side of retiring the penny.

“On each coin and each bill there are pictures of presidents and other important figures in our history,” Keinsley says. “Removing currencies from circulation almost feels like a gesture of disrespect toward those who got us where we are today.”

Yet however worthless it may be, getting rid of the iconic coin may seem to many people a huge loss.

“So much of who we are as Americans is presented on our currency,” says Andrew Keinsley, an economist at Weber State University, in Utah, who’s on the side of retiring the penny.

“On each coin and each bill there are pictures of presidents and other important figures in our history,” Keinsley says. “Removing currencies from circulation almost feels like a gesture of disrespect toward those who got us where we are today.”

With reporting by Caity Weaver of The New York Times.

With reporting by Caity Weaver of The New York Times.