President Donald Trump Heavy plans on Sunday unveiled to stop the production of the Cent – but getting that initiative requires a few extra steps and possibly approval of the congress.
Moreover, although Trump said that he instructed the Ministry of Finance to stop moulting because of their high costs, claim supporters of the cent that is wiser to evaluate changes to the nickel.
“Far too long, the United States has made pins that literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump wrote about Truth Social on Sunday. “This is so wasting! I dedicated my secretary of the American treasury to stop producing new money.”
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President Trump asks the Ministry of Finance to stop production of money due to high costs. (Olivia Oxley via AP)
Producing money is even more expensive than Trump’s figures. According to a 2024 US Mint report, it costs almost 3.69 cents to mint a single cents. The coins are mainly made of zinc and then covered with copper.
Trump’s explanation comes after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, which leads the new department of the Government Efficiency (doge), posted on X in January how expensive Minting Cents is.
Doge is responsible for identifying ways to eliminate waste, and has given rise to changes, including the disintegration of the $ 40 billion US Agency for International Development (USAID), which provides help to poor countries and development aid.
Yet proponents of the cent exist. Americans for regular cent, an organization that offers the congress and the White House research into research into the value of the cent, claimed that efforts are better aimed at reducing the costs of production for the nickel.
Nickels, with a value of five cents, costs around 13.8 cents to mint, according to the 2024 US Mint Report.
“The logical and tax -responsible solution is not to eliminate the cent, but to concentrate on producing a cheaper nickel,” said Americans for Common Cents executive director Mark Weller in a statement of 23 January. “This approach would tackle the real cause of losses while maintaining the functionality of small denominations in daily transactions.”
Although the waters are a bit cloudy in the following steps, experts say that the congress should probably be involved and adopt legislation to fulfill Trump’s wishes. And historically, earlier attempts in the congress to eliminate the coin fails.
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Nickels cost around 13.8 cents to mint, according to the 2024 US Mint Report. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
“The process of stopping the cent in the US is a bit unclear. It would probably require an act of the congress, but the secretary of the treasury may simply stop the mining of new cents,” Robert Triest, a professor of economics on Northeastern University, told the Northeastern Global News.
Nevertheless, there is dual interest on Capitol Hill to change mining money. In 2023, sens. Joni Ernst, R-IOWA, and Maggie Hasson, DN.H., have re-introduced the legislation to change the composition of the cent to reduce costs.
“It is absolute non-center that American taxpayers spend ten cents to make only one nickel. Only Washington can lose money to make money,” said Ernst in April 2023. “This commons, two-part effort will be the composition of Certain certain coins change the costs while allowing a seamless transition to circulation.
Nevertheless, a composition change will produce unlikely cheaper results. The Mint Report 2024 said that options for different metal compositions are not available to reduce production costs to the nominal value.
However, there is still a precedent for change and the congress has previously acted to end new coins. The legislative branch authorized the stopping of new half cent coins in 1857.
The Associated Press has contributed to this report.
