Losing Money, By Making Money

According to the United States Mint (USM), a government agency in the Department of Treasury, it costs more to make the penny and nickel than they are worth. For example, in 2020, the USM reported that it cost 1.76 cents to make the 1-cent penny and cost 7.42 cents to make a 5-cent nickel.

Along with providing the costs, the USM also lays out the number of coins the United States made. The United States made 8.2 billion pennies that cost 143.9 million dollars to make. The value of 8.2 billion pennies is only 82 million dollars, meaning the US lost 61.9 million dollars making pennies in 2020.

The US made 1.6 billion nickels that cost 118.6 million dollars to make. However, the value of 1.6 billion nickels is only 79.9 million, which means by producing nickels, the US lost 38.7 million dollars.

The making of pennies and nickels resulted in the US losing 100.6 million dollars. There has been a reported coin shortage going on for over a year now. So why do we continue to make pennies and nickels? Can we not round things to the nearest dime? Dimes and quarters are profitable, unlike pennies and nickels, so there would not be a need to eliminate all coins, just the ones that make us lose money just by making them.