The House of Representatives this week voted to block the penny from ever being minted in the future. While the U.S. Mint stopped making new pennies last year, the new legislation prevents the Treasury from restarting penny production.
The Common Cents Act directs the Secretary of the Treasury to “top minting the penny, to permit cash transactions to be rounded up or down to the nearest five cents, and for other purposes.”
“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary shall cease production of one-cent coins for general circulation, but may continue to produce and issue one-cent coins for sale as numismatic items,” the bill says. It notes that any penny that is “minted and issued on any date before the date of the enactment of this subsection shall remain legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues.”
The penny was first authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792. Due to economic and production factors, combined with “evolving consumer behavior, have made its continued production unsustainable,” the Mint explained in November upon ending production of the penny. “Over the past decade, the cost of producing each penny has risen from 1.42 cents to 3.69 cents per penny.”
President Trump called for the change in a February 2025 statement 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! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”
