Elon Musk’s DOGE is coming for the penny

Elon Musk speaks at an indoor Presidential Inauguration parade event in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

New York (CNN) — Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has a new target to cut down costs: the U.S. penny.

DOGE said on X that the penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost U.S. taxpayers over US$179 million in the 2023 fiscal year. “The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40 per cent of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced,” the post read in part.

The U.S. Mint in 2023 reported it circulated around 4.1 billion pennies. In fiscal year 2024, the US Mint said in its annual report that the U.S. penny costs about 3.7 cents to produce and distribute, up more than 20 per cent from the previous year. The rising cost of metals, including zinc and copper, is part of the reason it’s getting more expensive to make the coin.

Musk isn’t introducing a novel idea. For years, people have advocated eliminating the penny, as pennies are rarely spent as change. And since the COVID-19 pandemic, more consumers are shopping online or avoiding physical currency altogether.

More than 20 years ago, in a 2001 episode of the political drama “The West Wing,” fictional character Sam Seaborn goes into a rant about the penny.

“Majority of pennies don’t circulate. They go in jars, sock drawers,” Seaborn said.

More recently, last year, a New York Times Magazine story argued for abolishing the coin. “The necessity of abolishing the penny has been obvious to those in power for so long that the inability to accomplish it has transformed the coin into a symbol of deeper rot,” the piece noted.

Other experts say eliminating the penny could benefit businesses by saving some serious time for store clerks and cashiers. Jeff Lenard, vice president of strategic industry initiatives at the National Association of Convenience Stores, said about 52 million in-person cash transactions occur at convenience stores every day.

“If we save every one of these customers 2 seconds, that’s 104 million seconds or 1,203 days,” Lenard previously said to CNN. “And that doesn’t factor in time compounding — saving 2 seconds for the other people waiting in line before they get to pay. That’s some serious productivity.”

Musk has been heavily involved in the new Trump administration. President Donald Trump formally established the Department of Government Efficiency within the federal government in an executive action this week. Vivek Ramaswamy, who was originally brought on to co-run the department with Musk, has been pushed out, the Wall Street Journal reported.

CNN’s Michael Williams and Clare Duffy contributed to this report.

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