The federal government made its final order of penny blanks this month — the first step to end the production of the 1-cent coin, a spokesperson for the Treasury Department confirmed to USA TODAY.

The American penny has been in circulation since 1792. It will be discontinued because it is too expensive to make.

Per the latest U.S. Mint report, it costs less than six cents to make a dime ($0.0576). To make a quarter, it costs about 15 cents ($0.1468), and nearly 34 cents for a half-dollar ($0.3397).

The federal agency placed its final order for penny blanks this month, with the United States Mint slated to end manufacturing of the penny when that runs out, a Treasury official told CBS MoneyWatch.

The penny coin is getting phased out, a cost-cutting move that could ripple through consumer behavior, retailers' pricing strategies and cash transactions. Why it matters: It'll be harder to make sense out of cents and get exact change after the one-cent coin's upcoming demise.

The U.S. Mint took top honors in "Best Circulating Coin" at the 2025 Mint Directors Conference for the work on the Jovita Idár issue in the American Women quarter dollar series.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” Trump posted on social media. “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.”

There is currently no official plan to recall pennies, and financial institutions are expected to continue accepting them. While pennies will remain legal tender, they will gradually disappear from circulation, which is expected to impact product pricing.