(TNS) — Donald Trump is in office, and he has signed an executive order to create DOGE — the Department of Government Efficiency — with Elon Musk leading the way.
The purpose of DOGE is, supposedly, to cut away the excess spending in government, and there are a lot of programs and job positions that have reportedly already been added to the chopping block.
And, per Fortune, Trump and Musk could also change the way you count your money or, at least, the look of your change jar. And that is because, per the site, the penny could be on the list of things they are planning on getting rid of.
In fact, the DOGE account on X, has already posted about the penny.
“The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023,” the post read. “The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennis in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced. Penny (or 3 cents!) for your thoughts.”
Fortune reported that the U.S. Mint said the cost to produce a single penny rose to 3.69 cents last year, and that it cost 13.78 cents to make a nickel. It is reportedly the 19th consecutive year it cost more to make one of those coins than the actual face value of the coin was worth.
Per Fortune, DOGE incorrectly attributed the $179 million loss to just the penny when it was, in fact, the combined loss of making both the penny and the nickel.
Still, it does seem silly to lose money making money. So, it will be interesting to see if the nickel becomes a target, too, and how they might go about getting rid of the penny.
