US Treasurer Brandon Beach has visited the Philadelphia Mint to strike the final five circulating one-cent coins or pennies, ending 232 years of penny production in the country.

President Donald Trump in February ordered Treasury to halt what he called the “wasteful” minting of pennies, prompting gas stations, fast-food chains and big-box stores to adjust prices and round cash transactions.

Treasury said rising production costs and rapidly changing consumer habits and technology had made production of pennies “financially untenable” and unnecessary, noting that it costs 3.69 cents to make each penny, up from 1.42 cents a decade ago.

Production of circulating pennies was suspended months ago, Mint officials said, but an unspecified number of additional one-cent coins — marked with an

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