Kathrine Frich
Anyone can imagine printing coins or bills in a basement, but doing so is a crime reserved for counterfeiters.
Instead, governments take on the responsibility of producing money legally, deciding what is worth minting and what is not.
Yet even the state can misjudge the economics of its own currency, and sometimes a familiar coin quietly becomes more expensive to make than it is worth.
That is the story now unfolding in the United States, where the century-old penny has finally reached the end of its production line.
A historic halt
The U.S. Mint announced on Wednesday that it has stopped circulating new one-cent coins, ending more than two centuries of continuous production. ‘
AFP, cited by News.ro, reported that federal officials praised the penny’s long role in American daily life but said current conditions no longer justify keeping it in manufacture.
According to the Mint, production costs rose steadily over the past decade.
The price of raw materials and industrial processing pushed the cost of each penny from 1.42 cents to 3.69 cents, well above its face value.
Too many in circulation
The agency added that the country is already awash in pennies.
Roughly 300 billion are believed to be in circulation, an amount that it says far exceeds what consumers and businesses require for transactions.
President Donald Trump called earlier this year for production to end, arguing that public spending should be reduced wherever possible.
“Let’s eliminate waste from the budget of our great nation, even if it’s cent by cent,” he said in February.
A collector’s future
The Mint emphasised that one-cent coins will still be produced occasionally for collectors, but no longer for everyday use.
Officials noted that other countries reached similar conclusions years ago.
Canada, for example, halted its own penny production in 2012 after determining that the coin had become impractical.
The decision brings an end to one of the oldest units of American currency, marking a shift toward modern payment habits and a recognition that even the smallest coins must make economic sense.
Sources: AFP, News.ro, Digi24
This article is made and published by Kathrine Frich, who may have used AI in the preparation
