Most copper mined in the U.S. comes from Arizona. But President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement that he will halt production of pennies won’t make a dent in the state’s mining industry.
The U.S. Mint produced 3.2 billion pennies last year. But since 1982, nearly all of the metal used has been zinc.
So the copper industry can shrug off Trump’s move, which economists have long called a no-brainer because each penny costs more to make than it’s worth – 3.69 cents as of last year – and most end up in jars, piggy banks and sofa cushions.
“The penny is kind of an American institution, and it’s special in Arizona because we mine 70% of American copper,” said Kray Luxbacher, head of the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering at the University of Arizona.
But she said, “From an economic perspective, if you make a product that costs more to make than it’s worth, that’s a problem.”
The cost of producing a penny has far exceeded the value of each coin for the past 19 years, according to the U.S. Mint, which is part of the Department of Treasury.
A penny weighs 2.5 grams. Only a tiny fraction is copper – 2.5% by weight. The rest is zinc. Most refined zinc used in the United States is imported from Canada.
The 3.2 billion pennies minted in 2024 have a face value of $32 million and cost the government – and taxpayers – about $118 million to make.
Only about $1.8 million worth of copper went into those pennies – 198 metric tons at an average cost of $8,889, according to the Mint.
That’s about 0.02% of annual U.S. copper production.
So even if the penny is eliminated, Luxbacher said, “I don’t think that it will change the price substantially.”
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Arizona is known as the Copper State. The large copper star at the center of the state flag represents its copper industry.
Trump posted Sunday night on Truth Social that he has instructed his new Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, “to stop producing new pennies.”
“This is so wasteful!” he wrote. “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents.”
It is unclear whether the president or the Treasury secretary has the authority to halt the minting of pennies.
Last September, The New York Times quoted Edmund Moy, director of the Mint from 2006 to 2011, recalling a request to Congress for authority to end production of pennies: “I said, ‘You guys need to pass a law forcing me to change it.’”
The last time the Mint stopped producing a coin was in 1933 when it stopped making the gold eagle ($10) and double eagle ($20). Production of a half-cent coin stopped in 1857.
Despite the state’s leading role in copper production, some Arizona lawmakers have advocated for phasing out the penny.
In 1989, Jim Kolbe, a Republican who represented southern Arizona in Congress, introduced the Price Rounding Act. The bill would have required cash transactions to be rounded to the nearest nickel. Pennies would only be acceptable in quantities divisible by five, as well. Kolbe died in 2022.
In 2017, the year before his death, Republican Sen. John McCain introduced the Currency Optimization, Innovation, and National Savings (COINS) Act. The bill would have suspended production of pennies for 10 years. It didn’t get to the floor.
Canada, Australia and New Zealand have stopped circulating their one-cent coins, according to a 2022 Congressional Research Service report.
Resistance to eliminating the penny has stemmed in part from concern that consumers will overpay when transactions are rounded to the nearest nickel.
“Without the penny, the demand for nickels would rise to fill the gap in small-value transactions,” according to Americans for Common Cents, a pro-penny group backed Artazn – which sells zinc blanks that the U.S. Mint turns into pennies.
As the group points out, nickels are no bargain for taxpayers, either.
“Since each nickel costs nearly 14 cents to produce, this shift would drive up overall production expenses for the government,” the group argues.
The title says taxpayers will save money, but the article suggests otherwise. You maybe should clear that up.
Inflation increase act. IIA. Everything will now be rounded up. Good job tRump.
My costs have gone up already, this just increases it.
could be the ‘copper’ thief’s are pulling your municipal wire and selling it to the crooked metal guys… who’s buying this metal? Isn’t there a copper box for them?
No longer minting pennies will increase inflation? Are you kidding? Are you saying nobody rounds up (or down) anyway? And retail store counters don’t have trays with spare coins to make up the odd amounts? I’m betting you don’t have pockets full of pennies when you visit your local retail outlets.
Minting coins that cost more than they are worth is probably a pretty good way to increase inflation. It increases the cost of the coins we carry, through the taxes we pay to produce them, and provides less value for that cost.
I think we have more than enough pennies in circulation, so I have no problem with ceasing production.
have you been looking under my bed?
Myself, I’ve never been for getting rid of the penny as it’s always had a value to me, but then again, I’m “old school”. Costs more to make than it’s worth?? Well, government organizations squander our tax money on way more senseless things than penny production, but .. oh well. Once the penny is gone and people start realizing that everything will cost more because the product was just rounded up to the next higher price, it’ll be too late and I guess the “whiners” can console themselves with the fact that .. WOW!!!.. we’re just like those foreign countries that got rid of their pennies!
Seems odd to consider production costs of two cents to produce a penny as the deciding factor. They last decades so the weighted cost is nil. Paper money lasts months to years.
what will we do for the prop joke?
5 pennies
prop joke
heads up
1 penny heads up – How many odors do you see? 1 Cent (HaHa)
2 Pennies heads up – How much fruit to do you see? 1 Pair (HaHa)
3 ” ” – How many cars do you see? 3 Lincoln’s (HaHa)
4 ” ” – How many snakes do you see? 4 Copper heads (HaHa)
5 ” ” – How much sex do you see? NONE FOR 5 CENTS.. (HaHa)
My nickels worth