Each US penny cost the Mint about three cents to make
A coin has two numbers: what it is worth, and what it costs to make. Governments usually profit from the gap. A quarter cost the US Mint less than 15 cents to produce in 2024, and the difference, called seigniorage, goes to the Treasury.
The penny went the other way. According to the Mint's own annual reports, its unit cost has been above one cent every fiscal year since 2006.
That figure is the full cost per coin. About three cents of it was the cost of making the coin itself, metal included. The rest was administration and shipping coins to the Federal Reserve banks.
A penny has not been mostly copper since 1982. Since then it has been 97.5 percent zinc, with a copper plating that makes up the other 2.5 percent. A cheaper metal still could not bring the cost under a cent.
Multiply by billions and the loss is real. In fiscal 2024 the Mint shipped about 3.2 billion pennies, worth $31.7 million at face value, and lost $85.3 million on them. The nickel had the same problem, at 13.78 cents for a five-cent coin.
The last circulating penny
In 2025, the Secretary of the Treasury decided to suspend production. On 12 November 2025, at the Philadelphia Mint, the last penny for circulation was struck. It ended a production run of 232 years for a coin first authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792.
Pennies have not disappeared. They remain legal tender, an estimated 300 billion are still in circulation, and shops can go on pricing in single cents. The Mint still makes small numbers for collectors.
Its report for fiscal 2025 put the penny's cost at 3.02 cents. Lower than the year before, and still three times what the coin is worth.
Since 1982, what has a US penny been made of, mostly?
When a coin costs more to make than it is worth, every one issued is a loss, and in 2024 each US penny cost the Mint 3.69 cents.
