Pennies now cost 2.4 cents to make

The famous proverb, “A penny saved is a penny earned¨ may no longer apply to the American penny.

In fact, the cost to produce a penny in 2012 is more than two times its actual value. The Department of the Treasury announced the average cost of production this year was 2.4 cents. Similarly expensive, nickel production now costs over 11 cents per coin.

The total cost of producing over 5 billion pennies this year will run at least $120 million. After selling the pennies at face value to the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department will lose an estimated $70 million.

A number of countries stopped production of pennies. France, Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom eliminated their lowest denomination coins in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Canada announced it would cease penny production in May 2012.

The United States inflationary mismanagement of money has made the penny so worthless that they cannot even produce it at double its value.

The USA should cease production of the penny and save taxpayers millions.