No more pennies: Here's why Trump discontinued the coin

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00:00The cost savings of ending penny production will save the American taxpayer

00:04approximately $56 million a year in just production cost alone.

00:09After 232 years, advocates say it just makes sense.

00:14The last penny ever to be made was struck at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

00:18God bless America and we're going to save the taxpayers $56 million,

00:23U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach said before he pushed the button on the penny-making machine

00:27at the Mint and the room erupted in applause.

00:34And just like that, the coin that's been in production since 1793,

00:38and which sit untouched in jars and homes around the country for decades at a time,

00:42will never again be made.

00:44In February, President Trump announced that he was ordering the Treasury to stop making

00:48the wasteful coin because it costs more money to produce than it's worth.

00:52The government was spending about four cents for every penny it was minting,

00:56which added up to $56 million per year in total.

01:00Trump and other critics have argued that the penny has also become obsolete.

01:04When the penny was first made just years after the country was founded,

01:07one cent could buy Americans a biscuit, a piece of candy, or a candle.

01:11Now, of course, a penny will get you nowhere.

01:13Plus, there are billions of pennies that already exist,

01:16which Trump and others say is enough to tide America over for the foreseeable future.

01:20The cancellation of the coin only applies to its production,

01:23and pennies will remain legal U.S. tender.

01:25But while the Trump administration is celebrating, some businesses have been sent scrambling,

01:30changing prices after the cancellation came with no federal guidance.

01:34And some banks have complained that their penny supplies were already running low ahead of the

01:38cancellation, which has forced them to ration distributing the coins to customers.

01:42We have been advocating abolition of the penny for 30 years, but this is not the way we wanted it to go,

01:48said Jeff Leonard of the National Association of Convenience Stores, according to the Associated Press.

01:53No matter what your thoughts about the penny being discontinued,

01:55there's another elephant in the room when it comes to wasteful production.

01:59And that's the fact that the penny isn't even the least cost-effective currency out there.

02:03Nickels cost around a whopping 14 cents to produce.

02:06Try to make that math add up.