The End Of Pennies: What It Means For Your Wallet

President Donald Trump has made the call to have the government stop minting new pennies, because it turns out that they cost more than a penny to produce. What does this mean for us? Well, it means we may need more 5 cent pieces. It seems like a weird trade considering nickels are much more expensive to make.

Trump says he has directed the Treasury Department to stop minting any and all new pennies . . . because they cost more than their value to produce.

Quote, "For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than TWO cents.  This is so wasteful!   Let's rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it's a penny at a time." It is a true fact and according to the U.S. Mint, each penny actually costs 3.7 cents to make.  But like a lot of things, the situation is more refined than that."

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There are two pretty big problems with doing away with the pennies:

1.  Experts say this would in turn make us to need more NICKELS, which we're also losing money on because according to the Mint, each nickel costs 13.8 cents to produce.

2.  Analysts say this will cause prices to be on the rise for all of us consumers.  If the penny is phased out, our prices would just be rounded up or down to a five-cent amount.  And let's be real, they're probably going to be bumped up and not down in most cases.

Canada stopped minting its one-cent coin in 2012. 

In 2018, an economic analysis found that Canadians paid about $3.27 million more at places like grocery stores yearly, due to prices being rounded up after the big change of ditching the pennies. They made the change and just rolled with it. With that being said, there are also some problems with the alternatives:  Pushing toward a cashless society and continuing with the status quo.

The governments two cents on production of the penny.

One reason that the government has to make so many darn pennies every single year is a large percentage of them don't remain in circulation.  We just don't value them. So, they get stashed in junk drawers at home, floorboards of cars, bottoms of purses and bags, or they fall on the ground and people don't even bother to pick them up. Now if it was a quarter, we all stop and grab those right? Because we value those. Pennies....not so much. Could this be the end of the penny? I guess only time will tell.