https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/business/costs-of-pennies-and-nickels/index.html

Trump actually undersold the cost argument — pennies cost more than 3 cents to produce.

But there’s a problem with his plan: Phasing out the penny could result in needing to make more nickels, and the US Treasury Department loses far more money on every nickel than it does on every penny.

“Without the penny, the volume of nickels in circulation would have to rise to fill the gap in small-value transactions. Far from saving money, eliminating the penny shifts and amplifies the financial burden,” said American for Common Cents, a pro-penny group funded primarily by Artazn, the company that has the contract to provide the blanks used to make pennies.

According to the latest annual report from the US Mint, each penny cost 3.7 cents to make, including the 3 cents for production costs, and 0.7 cents per coin for administrative and distribution costs. But each nickel costs 13.8 cents, with 11 cents of production costs and 2.8 cents of administrative and distribution costs. These figures are for the government’s fiscal year, which ends on September.

During that fiscal year, the Mint tried to cut those losses by making far fewer nickels — only 202 million, down 86% from the 1.4 billion nickels it minted in each of the two previous years. That’s also far less than the 3.2 billon pennies it made in 2024 and the 4.1 billion it made in 2023 and 5.4 billion it made in 2022.