TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including why Donald Trump has instructed the U.S. Mint to stop producing pennies.
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00:00President Trump is looking to fix the federal budget one penny at a time.
00:04Literally. Trump ordered the end of the production of the one cent coin because
00:08it costs more than a cent to make it. The U.S. Mint said a penny cost 3.7 cents to
00:13make and distribute, up 20% from the previous year. In a post on Truth Social,
00:18Trump said, quote, this is so wasteful. I have instructed my Secretary of the U.S.
00:23Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let's rip the waste out of our great
00:28nation's budget, even if it's a penny at a time. The cost of the penny has gone
00:33up due to the rising cost of its components, which are largely zinc and
00:36copper. The penny is one of the first coins ever made by the U.S. Mint once it
00:42was established back in 1792 and has boasted the likeness of President
00:46Abraham Lincoln since 1909. As of 2023, there were about 4.1 billion pennies in
00:53circulation. According to the New York Times, the penny needs to go because we
00:57hoard pennies instead of actually using them as currency. And that's for those of
01:02us out there who even use cash. With the rise of digital payments, most people
01:06barely even touch a penny. The U.S. Mint, however, keeps on making them. Like many
01:12things, Trump's declaration alone won't end the penny as we know it. Since the
01:16penny was created by an act of Congress in 1792, it's going to take an act of
01:21Congress to put it to a cent-less grave. Turning to Monday's market action, stocks
01:27are staging a rebound after inflation worries knocked the wind out of the
01:30market on Friday. McDonald's is trading higher even though quarterly sales
01:34missed expectations. The shortfall was due to a drop in U.S. sales caused by an
01:39E. coli outbreak in October. From the New York Stock Exchange, I'm Conway Gittins
01:44with The Street.