Anti-penny push provokes passions

[Bustem' Down]

For the first time, the U.S. Mint has said pennies are costing more than 1 cent to make this year, thanks to higher metal prices.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/02/poor.penny.ap/index.html

Maybe it's time for the penny to go. Or make it out of something other than metal. I remember in Spain, thier lowest demonination coin was about a half an inch in diameter and felt like it was made of plastic, but it was probably aluminum or something light like that.

 

[ylexot]

It's really not surprising considering that pennies are made of a zinc core with a copper coating. It might be cheaper to make them out of solid nickel (but smaller). They might get some cost savings since they'd be buying an even larger quantity of nickel and the process is obviously easier. Of course, I'd have no problem with just doing away with them.

 

[KingFish]

I even read somewhere that nickles cost more then they are worth.