WASHINGTON, Feb 10, (AP): US President Donald Trump says he has directed the Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies, citing the rising cost of producing the one-cent coin. "For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” Trump wrote in a post Sunday night on his Truth Social site. "I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”

The move by Trump is the latest in what has been a rapid-fire effort by his new administration to enact sweeping change through executive order and proclamation on issues ranging from immigration, to gender and diversity, to the name of the Gulf of Mexico. Trump had not discussed his desire to eliminate the penny during his campaign.

But Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency raised the prospect in a post on X last month highlighting the penny’s cost. The US Mint reported losing $85.3 million in the 2024 fiscal year that ended in September on the nearly 3.2 billion pennies it produced. Every penny cost nearly $0.037 - up from $0.031 the year before.

The mint also loses money on the nickel, with each of the $0.05 coins costing nearly $0.14 to make. It is unclear whether Trump has the power to unilaterally eliminate the lowly one-cent coin. Currency specifications -- including the size and metal content of coins -- are dictated by Congress. But Robert K. Triest, an economics professor at Northeastern University, has argued that there might be wiggle room.

"The process of discontinuing the penny in the US is a little unclear. It would likely require an act of Congress, but the Secretary of the Treasury might be able to simply stop the minting of new pennies,” he said last month. Members of Congress have repeatedly introduced legislation taking aim at the zinc coin with copper plating.

Proposals over the years have attempted to temporarily suspend the penny’s production, eliminate it from circulation, or require that prices be rounded to the nearest five cents, according to the Congressional Research Service. Proponents of eliminating the coin have cited cost savings, speedier checkouts at cash registers, and the fact that a number of countries have already eliminated their one-cent coins. Canada, for instance, stopped minting its penny in 2012.