Penny for Your Thoughts

It was inevitable, I suppose. One way for the federal government to cut fat, eliminate wasteful spending, and become more efficient is to pinch pennies. Now, President Trump has done just that, instructing the secretary of the treasury to halt production of the penny since, apparently, each one costs nearly four cents to mint. That puts it at the forefront of bureaucratic waste, rivaling even recent revelations by Team Musk. To add insult to proverbial injury, the penny is almost all zinc with only 2.5 percent copper to give it that distinctive color, which seems to go nicely with Lincoln’s profile.

Some questions remain as to the president’s authority to halt production of the penny, since only Congress has the power to mint money (U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 5), but others believe the authority already exists in the US Code (31 U.S.C. § 5111-5112). Nevertheless, I am more interested in the wider implications of losing the penny, beginning with aesthetics.

In addition to its copper color, the penny is the only coin in this land of amber grain where the profile faces right. On all the others–Washington on the quarter, Roosevelt on the dime, and Jefferson on the nickel–the profile faces left. Lincoln is also the only one with a beard. At least he’ll remain on the five-dollar bill, lending a sense of diversity to the money supply. Toward that end, Harriet Tubman is scheduled to replace Jackson on the twenty-dollar bill by 2030.

Speaking of the money supply, what will happen with the inevitable disappearance of pennies? We will be forced to conduct transactions in multiples of five, with the nickel being the lowest denominator. That will raise prices, which doesn’t exactly help inflation. The other day I spent $41.14 at the grocery store. I remarked how lucky that number was and that I should play it in the lottery. In the new system, however, I would be charged $41.15. Think of that multiplied over millions of consumers for millions of items, year after year. I am reminded of that fraudulent gas station owner who cheated customers at the pump out of a penny or two each time they gassed up.

Think, too, of what it will mean for the future of currency. We are headed rapidly toward a virtual reality in which some form of crypto will dominate transactions. Coin and cash will become as obsolete as farthings, forming part of numismatic history. You’ll be able to see them only in museums. I already swipe my card at a local coffee shop every Saturday morning just for a cappuccino and eight-ounce container of chocolate milk. I usually pay $7.12. We’ll see what happens.

Then there is fashion. I have in mind that iconic American footwear (originally from Norway!)–penny loafers. I have two pairs in my closet right now–one leather, the other suede. They are the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. I’ve had loafers for years and, when younger, even put a penny in the strap, although I wasn’t too serious about it. It would have gotten me beaten up, deservedly so. Even at the penny arcade.

Lastly, will successive generations forget how to do basic math? They may be slipping already, although I can’t blame the loss of the penny for that, what with machines now doing all the work for us. I myself have all but forgotten long division. I wasn’t very good at it in the first place, but at least I knew what I was missing. Current students won’t have the loss of that memory to lament. Of course, they’ll have others as they refer to the early 2000s as “back in the day.”

I don’t want to make more of this than it deserves, but there’s something about the loss–the death–of something so familiar that makes me stop and take notice. This is true even with something as trivial as a 2.5 percent copper coin, which really can claim no love on my part. But its disappearance will feel like more chipping away of a past that we called home. It represents distancing, departing, drifting away. Yes, this drifting is toward something new, and we should be thankful for that, but it is a definite goodbye.

Now that I think about it, maybe Trump should go after the nickel instead. After all, it costs nearly 14 cents to mint, making it even more wasteful than the penny.

For further reading, see Chas Danner, “How to Make Sense of Trump’s Plan to Stop Making Cents,” Intelligencer (Feb. 10, 2025). Image credits: Adam Nir, Alyssa Jane. Want more? Go to Robert Brancatelli. The Brancatelli Blog is a member of The Free Media Alliance, which promotes “alternatives to software, culture, and hardware monopolies.”