The U.S. Mint made the last penny on Wednesday, ending the years-long farce of the government producing coins that cost more to make than they are worth.
Well, not exactly. The Mint will continue pressing the nickel, which costs about 14 cents to make. And it’s not clear what will happen now that the smallest denomination of coin will be out of production.
The U.S. Mint made the last penny on Wednesday, ending the years-long farce of the government producing coins that cost more to make than they are worth.
Well, not exactly. The Mint will continue pressing the nickel, which costs about 14 cents to make. And it’s not clear what will happen now that the smallest denomination of coin will be out of production.
The coins that already exist are still money, but they’ll become harder to come by.
President Donald Trump did not have the legal authority to cancel penny production unilaterally, as he has done. The task should have begun with Congress, not only for constitutional reasons, but for practical ones.
Congressional deliberation would have facilitated solutions for the problems inherent in eliminating a coin that’s existed since 1793. Retailers want a new law that would allow them to round prices to the nearest nickel for cash transactions, which probably would have been included in penny legislation. Also helpful would have been an incentive from the government to get the 114 billion pennies in circulation out of cupholders and into banks.
Congressional action has stalled in the past over opposition from metal lobbyists since companies with federal minting contracts are key employers in certain House districts. But Trump has shown a remarkable ability to bend the will of Republican majorities in the House and Senate. Mild effort would have produced a better result and a better process.
Sentimental attachment to the penny is silly nostalgia for a coin people no longer have use for. The penny today is used more in idioms than in payments. Luckily, you can still get a penny for your thoughts, and our two cents, without shiny new pennies being in production.
Yet there is one bitter aspect of this long overdue decision. It is a partial surrender to inflation. Nothing will ever again cost a penny.
The post The penny is dead. Long live inflation.
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