So long, penny! Trump orders US to ditch 1-cent coin after decades of complaints
So long, penny! Trump orders US to ditch 1-cent coin after decades of complaints
President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. to stop minting pennies. His surprise announcement comes after decades of unsuccessful efforts to phase out the 1-cent coin.
Should have been done a decade ago at least.
Now do Daylight Savings.
Sure thing, we'll just move everyone to permanent DST because that makes the most sense and causes the least amount of problems...
Or did you think we were going to switch everyone OFF of DST because that's your personal preference?
I don't care either way. I just want it to stop fucking with everyone's schedules.
- Permanent DST could just as much be considered a personal preference as ST.
- Regardless of which is chosen, the “clock” times for anything & everything can simply be adjusted to taste. The numbers on the clock don’t have magical powers. The numbers are arbitrary, only the position of the sun is of real interest.
- In ST, “noon” on the clock at least matches up with the sun’s midday position, roughly anyway, given the vagarities of time zones. It keeps as close to what noon traditionally means as possible, without throwing time zones out altogether.
- Time zones were invented & adopted because of trains. We need them for our faster-than-horse travel & communications technologies.
Ok, this can be his one positive thing amongst his mountain of shit. Even if it is just to get Lincoln's face off of coinage.
Not just Lincoln. It's to kill a poison pill he created that would have put women on the penny in 2026
One good thing does not undo a billion bads
So, I'm not a fan of either the penny or the president, but is he allowed to do that?
From the article:
Can Trump really order the Treasury to stop minting pennies without Congress’ approval?
Yes, according to legal scholar Laurence H. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University.
U.S. code gives the Treasury Secretary the authority to mint and issue coins “in amounts the secretary decides are necessary to meet the needs of the United States.”
Like many things people say won't be done due to '3 branches of government', yes.
Besides, don't we have the hindsight of precedence?
Canada started phasing out its penny a dozen years ago and urged store owners to round prices to the nearest nickel for cash transactions. Electronic purchases were still billed to the nearest cent. The move came after New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, and others dropped their lowest-denomination coins.
After Canada stopped minting new pennies, it began recycling them for their “valuable” copper and zinc, according to a 2022 report from the Canadian Mint.
He's doing it solely because he knows it somewhat popular, thus he won't get as much pushback when he commits this incredibly illegal overreach.
A subtle reminder that it's not just corporate greed, money itself has actually increased dramatically in supply.
Anyone else remember when they got their last equally distributed proceeds from inflation check in the mail? Me neither.
Subtle?
hey, so the US government printed trillions of dollars in the last few years, on top of them printing a few trillion the decade before, on top of them printing a few trillion every year since they're in debt. and that's just what's public information on their websites
Well this is confusing as hell. I think ditching pennies is a great idea, but I despise trump and maga and agreeing with anything he wants to do feels incredibly icky!
Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Did Something GoodUnlike Sleepy Joe “nothing will fundamentally change” Biden.
Broken clock
But then who’s gonna handle my ass pennies?
┌( ಠ_ಠ)┘
I was curious if there were any downsides and asked perplexity.
Getting rid of the penny could have several potential downsides:
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Increased nickel production: Eliminating pennies might lead to increased production of nickels to fill the gap in small-value transactions, which could be more costly since nickels also have a negative seigniorage[9].
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Disproportionate impact on low-income families: The poor, who tend to use cash more frequently, could be more affected by price rounding, potentially facing a "rounding tax"[6].
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Rounding up of prices: There are concerns that businesses might routinely round up prices to the nearest nickel, creating an informal tax on consumers[1].
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Loss for charities: Some charities have historically benefited from penny donations, although modern alternatives like credit card "roundups" may be more lucrative[6].
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Environmental concerns: While penny production has environmental costs, increased production of other coins like nickels could also have negative environmental impacts[7].
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Potential economic impact: A study in Canada, which eliminated its penny in 2013, found that rounding imposed a small but measurable cost on consumers in grocery transactions[6].
Citations: [1] https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20250209210/why-ditching-the-penny-may-not-cost-americans-much [2] https://www.npr.org/2025/02/10/nx-s1-5292082/trump-penny-mint-treasury [3] https://www.britannica.com/procon/US-penny-debate [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_elimination [5] https://wisevoter.com/issue/why-should-we-keep-the-penny/ [6] https://time.com/7215870/trump-us-penny-mint-costs-one-cent-coin-debate-explainer/ [7] https://www.thebalancemoney.com/get-rid-of-the-penny-4178219 [8] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/magazine/worthless-pennies-united-states-economy.html [9] https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/business/costs-of-pennies-and-nickels/index.html
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Literally like a pensioner on the bus complaining about the size of small change a they get the fare out in shrapnel, except he’s never been on a bus or handled small change. Maybe they should set up a whist drive in the Oval Office next.