The U.S. President has directed the Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies, citing rising production costs—each one-cent coin now costs nearly $0.04 to produce.
Completely discontinuing the penny would likely require an act of Congress, but the Secretary of the Treasury may have the authority to halt new production. Over the years, several proposals have aimed to address the ongoing losses from minting the coin, including temporarily suspending production, removing it from circulation, or rounding prices to the nearest five cents.
There is precedent for eliminating low-value coins. Congress discontinued the half-cent coin in 1857, and other countries, such as Canada, have already phased out their one-cent coins—Canada stopped minting its penny in 2012 and stopped using them in 2013.
The nickel could be next, as each $0.05 coin now costs nearly $0.14 to produce.
Would your business be affected if the U.S. stopped minting pennies? If so, how? What if nickels were also eliminated? What changes would you need to make?
