Penny Production Ceases Due to Unsustainable Manufacturing Costs

Key Quotes

"In November, the U.S. stopped production of the humble penny after 232 years in circulation. On today’s show, Darian Woods and Wailin Wong from NPR's daily economics podcast The Indicator unpack the fiscal math that doomed the penny, and an artist pay tribute to this American icon."

This quote introduces the central topic of the podcast episode: the cessation of penny production by the U.S. government. The Indicator hosts, Darian Woods and Wailin Wong, are presented as the guides who will explore the economic reasons behind this decision and acknowledge the cultural significance of the penny through an artist's perspective.

"The job of the mint is to make enough circulating coins to meet demand within the economy and ed says the office tries to do this at no cost to the taxpayers and that means it shouldn't cost more to make a coin than the face value of that coin the best case scenario is when a coin's face value is more than the production cost then the government makes a profit there's even a special term for that profit seigniorage"

Ed Moy, former director of the U.S. Mint, explains the operational goal of the mint: to supply coins without incurring costs for taxpayers. Moy highlights that profitability occurs when a coin's face value exceeds its production cost, a concept known as seigniorage, which then contributes to the national treasury.

"In 2006 ed's first year on the job the U.S. mint was making money on dimes quarters and dollar coins but it was losing money on nickels and pennies in fact 2006 was the first year that the cost of making a penny went above one cent ed remembers it going to 1 4 cents"

This quote pinpoints a critical turning point in the penny's financial viability, as stated by Ed Moy. Moy recalls that in 2006, the cost to produce a penny exceeded its face value for the first time, marking the beginning of a sustained financial loss for this denomination, while other coins remained profitable.

"The demand for pennies was also declining as people used less cash that was up to my successor to deliver that report to congress and every other successor has had to deal with this problem by last month when the mint announced it was producing the last penny the cost to make the coin was 3 7 cents"

Ed Moy discusses the dual pressures contributing to the penny's demise: decreasing demand due to reduced cash usage and the escalating production cost. Moy notes that the problem persisted beyond his tenure, with the cost to mint a penny reaching 3.7 cents by the time production finally ceased.

"My name is robert wexler and i'm an artist and for more than two decades now i've been focusing on the u s penny and i just finished 100 000 penny cube"

Robert Wexler, an artist, introduces his long-standing dedication to using the U.S. penny as his artistic medium. Wexler shares his recent completion of a large-scale sculpture, a cube constructed from 100,000 pennies, demonstrating his deep engagement with the coin.

"They're these like lowly gutter things you know they they live in muck and they're exposed to unspeakable filth but that has this incredible effect in that they um they do turn blue and green but they also turn like these spectacular oranges and reds or these like really lovely waxy blacks and it's so unique and special and just it's like a little world"

Robert Wexler describes the aesthetic transformation of pennies due to their exposure to environmental elements. Wexler highlights how the "filth" and wear on these coins result in a range of striking colors, from blues and greens to oranges, reds, and blacks, which he finds uniquely beautiful and evocative.