After more than two hundred years, the humble one-cent piece is on its way out due to production costs that significantly exceed its face value.

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

The cost of producing a single penny has already skyrocketed to about 4 cents, while consumers have mostly shifted to digital payments and cards.

President Donald Trump says the small coin is "so wasteful" and should be abolished, with an estimated saving of $56m (£41m) a year.

The Treasury Department placed its last order for penny blanks earlier this month, fulfilling a bipartisan, and DOGE, dream.

The U.S. Treasury is discontinuing the penny, finalizing its last order for the coin due to its high production cost. Cash transactions will be rou

The U.S. government has ordered its final batch of penny blanks and will stop producing the coin when those blanks run out. The Treasury says $56 million will be saved.