A deep red county in Tennessee has called on President Donald Trump to reconsider his order to the Treasury Department to stop producing pennies. Residents in Greene County, which is home to Artazn LLC—the maker of all of the country’s unstamped pennies, have warned that there will be significant job losses if Congress approves the move, The Greenville Sun reported. Jeff Taylor, CEO of the Greene County Partnership, said he was disappointed that Trump’s decision would cost “American jobs” in the county, which voted 82.3% for the president in the 2024 election. Americans for Common Cents, a pro-penny group with Artzan, said, “overhead expenses at the Mint would remain [if the penny were eliminated] and would need to be absorbed by other coins, increasing their per-unit costs. Additionally, without the penny, the demand for nickels would rise to fill the gap in small-value transactions.” Trump announced the new cost-cutting measure last week, writing on Truth Social, “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!”
Read it at The Greenville Sun
