The new government is obsessed with creating VIRTUAL meme coins. President Trump unleashed one right as he took office as did Melania Trump and Elon Musk has investments in several coins, and his favorite is Dogecoin. Elon and the new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) is calling for the penny to be eradicated to save money. In a social media post, they said, “[A] penny costs over three cents to make and pennies cost U.S. taxpayers over $179 million in 2023. The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies [that year].” This isn’t the first time that there’s been talk about eliminating the penny especially as fewer people are using cash.
So how would it work if the penny was killed?
Prices would just be rounded up or down to a five-cent amount. And let’s be honest, they’re probably going to be bumped UP in most cases. A penny here and there doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it could make a difference on cheaper items, like individual groceries. Canada stopped minting its one-cent coin in 2012 and in 2018, an economic analysis found that Canadian consumers paid about $3.27 million more at grocery stores each year, due to prices being rounded higher after the change. But the Department of Government Efficiency isn’t tasked with making things cheaper for you, only cheaper for the government, which will save taxpayer money. And that could trickle down to us someday. Back in November, Elon warned that there would be “temporary hardship” for ordinary Americans but that in the end, the government would have better financial footing down the road, which will “ensure long-term prosperity.” (For the record, the U.S. Mint reports that it costs over 11 cents to make each nickel.)