Two cents can’t even get you a penny.
President Trump’s newly minted Division of Authorities Effectivity has a shiny new goal for its cost-cutting mandate — america penny which now prices over three cents to fabricate.
The official X account for DOGE, the reform division headed by billionaire Elon Musk, shared information about penny manufacturing in america — which is an affront to each effectivity and frugality.
“The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost U.S. taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023. The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced,” DOGE tweeted.
The put up references an article from Fortune citing the US Mint, which states the US spent $179 million in 2023 minting each pennies and nickels.
Final 12 months was the nineteenth consecutive 12 months a penny has price extra to provide than its face worth, in response to the March article.
Pennies price 3.7 cents to make in 2024, in response to the US Mint.
In 2016, it price the US simply 1.5 cents to provide a penny — with the federal government printing solely $46 million price of the one-cent marks, in response to CBS Information.
The nickel is the one different US observe with a manufacturing price exceeding its face worth. In 2023, every nickel price 11.5 cents to make, in response to the US Mint.
The excessive costs are incurred as a consequence of fluctuations in steel market costs, manufacturing, and transportation prices.
Pennies, that are generally believed to be produced from copper, are largely manufactured from zinc with merely a copper overlay to provide the impression of a strong copper coin.
Zinc has doubled in worth since 2016, in response to knowledge from the Federal Reserve Financial institution of St. Louis.
DOGE, headed up by the world’s richest man, has promised to chop as a lot as $500 billion yearly in wasteful spending throughout the chief department departments.
