Contemplating the fate of the penny isn’t worth your time—and that’s exactly the point, according to economists who say it’s high time to phase out the one-cent piece.

Those economists—and others who’ve had enough of the coin—have argued for years that Americans were justified in ignoring it. Spending a minute digging a penny out of a jar is a poor investment, they say, given that given that Americans’ average hourly wage is about a cent a second.

The long-debated question of whether penny-production should end got some fresh air this week after the Department of Government Efficiency, a cost-cutting task force convened by President Trump, posted about it on X this week—though without expressly recommending its demise.

The conversation has been renewed as everyday use of, and support for, the penny has dwindled due to inflation and the rise of cards and digital wallets, according to Robert Whaples, a Wake Forest University economics professor who has studied the issue for roughly two decades.

“In any one of those years, I would have given our chances of the Mint stopping producing the penny at 5%, or maybe less than 5%,” Whaples said. “We’ve gotten out of that zone.”

After COVID, ‘Nobody Cared About Pennies’

Jay Zagorsky, a professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, views the availability of cash, including coins needed to make change, as crucial, especially for people who struggle to afford bank fees or meet minimum account balances. He saw the penny as an important part of the cash ecosystem until the coin shortage during COVID-19.

“Inflation hit 10% in a single year, and everybody needed quarters,” Zagorsky said. “Nobody cared about pennies, and that pretty much sealed it for me.”

DOGE estimated that the Mint loses upwards of $100 million annually on pennies, which according to the Mint’s annual report cost about 3.7 cents each to produce. The new department, led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk—who is worth a lot of pennies—sought feedback on these figures by posting on X: “Penny (or 3 cents!) for your thoughts.”

Many users responded by calling pennies wasteful and emblematic of government inefficiency. Others expressed concern that, without the penny, they’d pay more because prices ending in 99 cents would be bumped up.

When Canada phased out its penny, prices were still set down to the cent, Whaples said. But merchants started rounding to the nearest five cents for customers paying with cash. Consumers can expect to see a similar approach here, he said.

About 16% of transactions are conducted in cash, according to the Federal Reserve. Once taxes are factored in, cash bills are will be rounded up as often as down, according to Whaples, who used data from a convenience-store chain to research this concern.

Support for the penny largely stems from nostalgia or the sense that its a culturally significant artifact, economists said. (Some even consider the coins “lucky.”)

Should logic prevail, another coin might find itself in DOGE’s crosshairs: the nickel, which costs about 13.8 cents to make, according to the Mint.

“The penny, that’s probably the first step,” said Andrew Keinsley, a professor at the Weber State University’s Goddard School of Business & Economics.