DIMED OUT

Treasury to Cease Penny Production Within the Next Year

The long-running currency will be gradually phased out over the next year.

The United States Mint will stop producing pennies next year, phasing out a coin that has been in circulation for over two centuries, the Wall Street Journal reports. The move is part of a long-running, bipartisan campaign to axe the lowest-denomination currency, which is rarely spent and costs the government around $85 million each year to produce. Of the 3 billion pennies produced each year, up to $68 million worth are either lost or thrown away, with the Federal Reserve estimating that around 60 percent of all actively circulating pennies, totalling around $14 billion, sit indefinitely in coin jars and change purses. The final batch of new pennies was ordered earlier this month, and although Americans will still be able to use the coins for transactions, they will gradually be phased out of circulation. Businesses will be required to round their prices up and down to the nearest five cents in order to adjust to the changes, the Treasury announced in a statement. President Donald Trump has long been critical of penny production, as was his predecessor, former President Barack Obama. The move marks rare bipartisan agreement between Democrats and Republicans and follows in the footsteps of Canada, which stopped producing pennies in 2012.