Most Americans of a certain age can remember the penny candy counter at their favorite mom-and-pop variety store. Both penny candy and traditional mom-and-pop stores are rarities today, though you can still find Tootsie Rolls, Mary Janes, jelly beans, red hots, chewable wax lips and other old-school favorites at specialty shops around the country.

What you may not be able to find in the future is pennies.

President Trump has ordered the U.S. Mint to stop producing them. His announcement stressed the fact that taxpayers lose more than two cents every time a new penny is minted. That adds up: In fiscal year 2024 alone, the Mint reported losing $85.3 million on the nearly 3.2 billion pennies it produced.

The decision is long overdue, but it wasn’t Trump who killed the penny — it was inflation.

The real reason it’s time to pitch the penny is that its value has (by definition) stayed at one cent, while the price of everything else (including zinc, which makes up 97.5 percent of the coin) has gone up — largely due to the Federal Reserve’s inflationary policies........

© The Hill