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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2122 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 9, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I've been hearing calls to abolish pennies for my whole life. Apparently, Trump is finally doing it by executive order. Is that within presidential authority? In the past I've always seen it presented as a call for legislation.

I'd be glad to be done with British pennies. All they do is accumulate in my wallet, God knows you can't spend them if you want to most of the time.

Ah for the days of buying 10p mixes at the shop down the street with 1p coins I found on the street. Finding a pound in those days made one wealthy beyond measure!

My old school shop used to sell marshmallows for one a penny and gummies for 10p. Greedy little pig that I was, I would go down there with a pound and get a weekend’s worth of snacks.

Trump seems to have entered his 2nd term with the goal of testing every possible interpretation that favors his executive authority. Most will probably ultimately fail, but some will probably succeed, and some may indirectly succeed (where a temporary change that's later rescinded has follow on effects that accomplish the spirit of the original act). As an example if you take away a grant program for a month and during that month the recipient fails and is liquidated restoring the grant making authority doesn't really restore the recipient.

The Associated Press cites an article that features an economics professor's statement that the president's authority is uncertain.

“The process of discontinuing the penny in the U.S. is a little unclear. It would likely require an act of Congress, but the Secretary of the Treasury might be able to simply stop the minting of new pennies,” Triest says.

I don't know how much weight an economics professor's opinion carries on this question of law, though.

US Mint is part of Treasury, so the President would be in control of it. I think the difference is between stopping making new pennies (easy) and taking the penny out of circulation as a legal tender (complicated, but also ultimately not necessary since it doesn't cost much to keep it as legal tender).

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