Do you know It Costs More Than a Penny to Make a Penny? [Money]

I just figured out that it costs more than a penny to manufacture a penny. Specifically, it costs 1.62 cents to supply that 1 cent copper coin. And that’s been the case for some time now! What the hell?

Why’s it cost so much? Apparently, the penny is created from 2.5% copper and 97.5% zinc and those metals have gone up in price as of late. Essentially, in the event you could melt the coin, you’d have materials totaling 1.62 cents-more than the cent that measly penny is worth. That’s crazy! What’s crazier is that it’s been that way since 2006. Aren’t useful things presupposed to be greater than the sum of its parts? Shouldn’t they have got changed the metal mixture to something cheaper by now?

Apparently, the director of the Mint tried to make the penny cheaper to manufacture but Congress shut that initiative down. As it currently stands, the Treasury boss can ” recommend changes in metal content or within the amount of coins produced” but only Congress can make the overall decision.

So maybe it’ll eventually become well worth the money to make! Though really, I figured this loss in manufacturing would make for an excellent reason to kill off the penny (I mean, who likes pennies?). But with old skool Congress calling the shots, I doubt that’d ever happen-irrespective of how useless and costly pennies become. [ Yahoo Finance ]

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This post is tagged: calling the shots, copper coin, greater than the sum, initiative, metal content, metal mixture