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A penny costs almost $.04 to produce - $.037 to be exact. That means that we lose roughly $.027 per penny that is made in the United States. President Trump has ordered that the penny cease to be minted in an effort to save money and eliminate wasteful spending. A penny is made from zinc and is copper plated, which means precious metals are required for their manufacture as well. The nickel costs $.14 to produce, an amount nearly three times its value. Some see getting rid of the penny as a first step in becoming a cashless society. Cash may soon be on the chopping block as well, for several reasons. Paper dollars may not be as expensive to create as coins, but dollars can still be counterfeited, and cash can be infested with germs since it has been handled by so many people. Some businesses are already going cashless. Keeping cash on hand means you're susceptible to being robbed for it by criminals. Cash makes drug deals easy, too. There are advantages to a cash-free society, but there may be several drawbacks. Merchants may inherit a monopoly on the exchange of all money in circulation and begin to charge exorbitant fees, which will later be passed to the consumer. In addition, every monetary transaction will leave behind some type of digital record without cash, but cash is legal tender for all debts, public and private. There is also the matter of being able to exchange funds from person to person. Sure, our money can change hands now without making a withdrawal at an ATM thanks to Zelle and Cash App (and maybe a few other apps), but there is still a record of the transaction, which means financial privacy will become a thing of the past. Lots of people don't want their financial institution to know how they spend every dime that they earn.