Monday, May 26

As the Trump administration aims to cut costs, the United States Mint has confirmed that they will stop producing the penny.

Trump has heavily emphasized cutting costs during the five months of his term that have elapsed so far, and this is yet another step in the direction of minimizing government expenditure on items that he considers unnecessary.

The US Treasury confirmed last week that they have made their last order of penny blanks, which are like a blank canvas for the penny. They believe that this order should last through early 2026, after which the production of the penny will come to an end.

This comes after the US Mint stated that the price of producing pennies increased by over 20% last year-- it costs around 4 cents to make a penny today. However, many citizens who believe pennies to be useful have protested the idea, pointing out that the nickel is much worse, costing around 14 cents to make.

Nevertheless, the administration expects to save up to $56 million in manufacturing costs after penny production is halted. Meanwhile, the 114 billion pennies currently in circulation will remain available to use until they are slowly phased out.

Also, this order is only temporary for now-- if Trump were to leave office today, the government could easily begin producing pennies once again. The only way to make the order permanent would be to pass it through Congress in a bill, but it will be a challenge considering that multiple previous efforts to do so have failed.

Upcoming Events:

• Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh (Tuesday, May 27)

• International Day of UN Peacekeepers (Thursday, May 29)

• International Day of Potato (Friday, May 30)

• Martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev Sahib (Friday, May 30)

• World No-Tobacco Day (Saturday, May 31)

• UEFA Champions League Final (Saturday, May 31)

• Global Day of Parents (Sunday, June 1)

• Shavuot Begins (Sunday, June 1)

Fact of the Day (BBC): LEGO bricks withstand compression better than concrete. An ordinary plastic LEGO brick is able to support the weight of 375,000 other bricks before it fails. This, theoretically, would let you build a tower nearing 3.5km in height. Scaling this up to house-size bricks, however, would cost far too much.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): We have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but today is overflowing with potential. (Allan Lokos)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Dyspeptic (adj, diss-PEP-tik) - Dyspeptic is a formal and old-fashioned word used to describe someone who is bad-tempered (in other words, easily annoyed or angered), or something that shows or is characteristic of a bad temper. The noun form of dyspeptic is dyspepsia.

In a Sentence: The comedian’s shtick of delivering dyspeptic rants on the daily annoyances of modern life was enormously popular.