The Case for Getting Rid of the Penny Is Flawed
President Trump is right to stop minting the coin, but he's wrong about why it should happen.
The penny has lived many lives.
Photographer: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North AmericaThe penny, a coin that has been part of the nation’s pocket change since the country's founding, may soon be no more. Last week, President Donald Trump announced that he had ordered his Treasury Secretary to cease minting the coin, arguing that the cost of doing so — upward of three cents for every penny produced — is a waste of taxpayer money.
There are good reasons for getting rid of the penny: inflation has eroded its face value to insignificance, most obviously. Focusing on the cost of producing them, though, is misplaced, as it ignores why virtually every modern government began minting these coins in the first place: the “big problem of small change.”