Save your pennies!

President Donald Trump recently announced that he has instructed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to have the Treasury Department stop making new pennies, explaining that it costs more than two cents to make them! 

"For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents," DJT wrote in a post on Truth Social. "This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time."

Actually it costs more than three cents per cent. Last month, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) wrote in a post on X, "The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US 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."

It's worth noting too that the quality of the ersatz copper cents -- they're actually zinc with a thin veneer of copper -- ain't what it used to be, just like everything else in today's America. Check out the example at left.

So full of flaws and errors are America's coins that Lincoln Memorial pennies with errors or in high grades can be rare and valuable. The one pictured is offered on eBay for a mere $25,000.

A 1986 penny with the text "In Sod We Trust" instead of "In God We Trust" is rare and sought-after. A 1986 penny missing the layer of copper cladding is rarer still. Even a cut or nick or extra piece of metal (known as a "cud") on the rim of the coin, also known as a cud can be worth hundreds of times the coin's nominal value.

Although production of new pennies has been halted, the cent has not yet been officially demonetized as it was in Canada in 2012. See "Canada doesn't make cents any more", WWW 20/12/12.

In that piece, Walt had made a very sensible suggestion, which he now passes on to Elon Musk [who we assume reads WWW. Ed.] If the US government, ever decides to follow the lead of the frugal frostbacks, here's Walt's can't-miss cost recovery plan. 

Sell the old pennies to Zimbabwe! They use US dollars there but they have no coins because they can't afford to import any. So ship them Amereican pennies at, say, half their face value, plus S+H, plus taxes and tariffs, and they should fetch pretty close to... well, millions and millions -- way more than the expected revenue from recycling.

You're welcome, Mr Musk! No need to write a letter of thanks. A check will do nicely.