The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is questioning the penny costing 3 cents to make.
DOGE’s role in the Trump administration is to reduce wasteful spending and eliminate unnecessary regulations, according the White House.
DOGE’s official account on X shared figures that U.S. taxpayers pay more than $179 to produce pennies.
The Mint produced more than 4.5 billion pennies in 2023 and they make up around 40% of all of the coins produced for circulation.
“Penny (or 3 cents!) for your thoughts,” the post concluded.
Musk’s post, which was reshared 3.5K and earned 25,000 likes, was viewed by 1.7 million people.
The post received more than 1,000 comments.
Remove the penny.
We could just remove physical currency all together. If they didn’t have to create and print currency, and instead chose digital currency with ledgers (like how banks / credit cards/ etc already work) how much money would that save us annually ?
— koolcaleb (@theKoolCaleb) January 22, 2025
“The penny does have its place in the monetary system and is needed,” said a user named Reckless.
As much as this is not financially good. The penny does have its place in the monetary system and is needed. I.e. you know math and numbers. Instead we should be looking at the processes to why this costs 3 cents to make. My thoughts
— Reckless (@Recklesscbr) January 22, 2025
“The gov earns those $.03 back many times over during the life of that penny,” explained Paris Vega.
The gov earns those $.03 back many times over during the life of that penny. Every time a penny is part of transaction it’s getting taxed twice in most cases. The buyer pays sales tax and the seller pays income tax. So fraction by fraction, every time that money changes hands it…
— Paris Vega (@parisvega) January 22, 2025
“Why do we have a 40% turnover rate on pennies,” asked a commenter named Sammy El.
Why do we have a 40% turnover rate on pennies? They’re pennies… They should have an expected lifespan of 10 years at least.
— Sammy El (@el_samiel) January 22, 2025
“End the penny,” Andy Froemel said.
“So bullish,” a user named Ant said.
Only Congress–not a non-federal executive department–can end the penny by passing a law that removes it from circulation and instructing the U.S. Mint to cease making it.
According to the executive order that established DOGE, its formal purpose is to “modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”
