PHILADELPHIA —

The U.S. Mint on Wednesday ended production of the penny, a change made to save money and in recognition of the growing irrelevance of the 1-cent coin.

The last pennies were struck at the mint in Philadelphia, where the country’s smallest denomination coins have been produced since 1793, a year after Congress passed the Coinage Act.

President Donald Trump ordered the penny's demise as costs climbed to nearly 4 cents per penny and the 1-cent valuation became somewhat obsolete. Billions of pennies remain in circulation, but they are rarely essential for financial transactions in the 21st century economy.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents," Trump wrote in an online post in February, as costs continued to climb.

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