Baseball legend Yogi Berra reportedly, and apocryphally, said, "A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore." That rings truer than ever now in the age of Bidenflation, which we will hopefully be seeing brought to heel soon. Even so, a nickel may not be worth a dime, but a penny, it turns out, costs the taxpayers more than three cents. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is proposing that we eliminate that troublesome coin.

In Tuesday X post, Musk's DOGE wrote that the U.S. spends about 3 cents to mint each penny, which, of course, is only valued at 1 cent.

"The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost U.S. taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023," DOGE wrote. "The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced."

In pointing out the penny's costliness, DOGE is taking aim at an issue that has sparked debate for years, although the price of manufacturing the cent has only grown over the past several years. In 2016, for instance, the U.S. was spending about 1.5 cents to mint each penny, or less than half of its current manufacturing cost.

That doesn't seem like a good return on investment. There are probably ways to make pennies more cheaply, perhaps by changing the material used. The Japanese one-yen coin, which is worth roughly an American penny depending on the exchange rate, is a small coin made of aluminum. Seems like that would be cheaper. (I keep a one-yen coin handy on my desk and occasionally offer it to my wife, saying "I've got a yen for you.")

But would it be enough cheaper? The current setup here in the U.S. is not a good use of taxpayer money.

The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023.

The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced.

Penny (or 3 cents!) for your thoughts.

Sources:https://t.co/Y5LlrpyA62…

— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) January 22, 2025

This is probably more doable today than ever before since most transactions now are cash-free for a majority of Americans, aside from a few old holdouts (like me) who insist on paying for smaller purchases with cash.

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As it happens, there is - or, at least, was - a precedent for eliminating the troublesome penny.

In 1996, I was recalled to active Army duty and sent to Germany in support of President Clinton's Operation Joint Endeavor. To my satisfaction and surprise, I wasn't required to go downrange but instead was assigned to the staff of the Command Surgeon, U.S. Army, Europe (USAEUR), and had an apartment in Heidelberg. While I tried to live the experience and stayed on the local economy as much as possible, taking out my per diem mostly in Deutschmarks, the local post exchanges used American currency - and there were no pennies. Someone explained to me that the Army/Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) didn't use pennies because it cost more to ship pennies overseas than they were worth, so all prices were rounded to the nearest nickel, and we made do without.

Seems like we could do that again. The only question remains this: Will we have to start offering our pensive friends and acquaintances a nickel for their thoughts? And are they worth it?