Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) might put the U.S. penny on the chopping block as they look to trim spending.

"The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023," wrote the official DOGE account on X.

"The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced. Penny (or 3 cents!) for your thoughts," the office added.

The Week noted that the $179 million cost for the penny is grouped with nickels in the U.S. Mint's FY2023 annual report. The true cost for the production of pennies was $86 million in FY2023.

Still, DOGE is not the first entity to signal support for the elimination of the penny. Whether to keep the penny in production has been a debate for almost 20 years.

The cost to produce the penny was at 1.2 cents in 2006, which resulted in calls for it to be phased out.