The Mint, which has made the coin since 1793, lost $85.3mn last year on producing the penny after unit costs rose by 20.2 per cent owing to the price of copper and zinc rising. Some content could ...

The U.S. Mint has made its final order of penny blanks and plans to stop producing the coin ... “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents.

That's also more than half of the 25 cent coin's buying power today. The quarter's unit cost has increased by 26.2% since the Mint's 2023 report, when its price tag was closer to 12 cents.