Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) created to chop down on authorities spending has highlighted that minting the US penny is costing taxpayers considerably.
There have been many makes an attempt for the reason that Seventies to section out the penny after its price of manufacturing had been recognised, however this has seen no outcomes up to now(Representational Picture/Pixabay)
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“The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023,” the division wrote in a submit on X (Previously Twitter).
For context, one penny denominates just one cent.
The submit went on to say that the Mint produced “over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced.”
Nevertheless, there have been many makes an attempt for the reason that Seventies to section out the penny after its price of manufacturing had been recognised, however this has seen no outcomes up to now, in line with a Enterprise Insider report.
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A big portion of the fee comes all the way down to the supplies used. The cash have been initially pure copper, however have been practically 98% zinc since 1982 per JM Bullion. And zinc is not as low cost because it as soon as was.
Because of this, the penny’s minting price elevated by 12.9%, which is essentially the most of every other coin, in line with the report.
One other consideration is that fewer persons are utilizing money yearly for transactions within the US, in line with the report which cited the Federal Reserve’s 2024 report on client funds which revealed that solely 16% of funds in 2023 was made in money, whereas the determine was 18% a yr earlier than.
Nevertheless, it’s unclear if DOGE will really tackle the penny.
US President Donald Trump signed an Govt Order, making DOGE turned an official US authorities company proper after he took workplace on Monday, January 20, 2025.
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Nevertheless, its scope has up to now, been restricted to updating the federal authorities’s IT methods. The submit on the penny highlights the chance that its perform might get ultimately prolonged previous simply IT.