PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The U.S. Mint in Philadelphia is set to strike its last circulating penny on Wednesday, Nov. 12.

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President Donald Trump ordered the demise of the 1-cent coin as production costs climbed to 3.69 cents per penny.

The U.S. Mint has been making pennies in Philadelphia since 1793, a year after Congress passed the Coinage Act. Today, there are billions of them in circulation.

In a cost-cutting move instituted in 1982, pennies are made of zinc, with a thin coating of copper. Nevertheless, Trump found them too expensive.

“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” he wrote in an online post in February, as costs continued to climb. “This is so wasteful!”

Still, many people have a nostalgia for them, s

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