The Treasury Department will follow through on President Donald Trump’s order to stop producing pennies, Newsmax has confirmed.
New pennies will cease being put into circulation by early next year, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Businesses eventually will need to begin rounding up or down to the nearest 5 cents due to not enough pennies being available for everyday cash transactions, the Treasury said.
A department spokesperson confirmed the Journal report in an email to Newsmax and said the Treasury has made its final order of penny blanks this month. The U.S. Mint will continue to manufacture pennies while an inventory of penny blanks exists.
The Mint projects an annual savings of $56 million in reduced material costs by ending penny production.
In early February, Trump said he had directed the Treasury to stop minting new pennies, citing the cost of producing the one-cent coin.
