>Steve Rothman says it costs more to make a penny and nickel than the coins are worth
Penny-pinching holiday shoppers may be more thrifty than you think.
The U.S. Mint spends more to make coins stamped with portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson than the currency is worth, according to U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman.
“Currently it costs more than a penny for the U.S. Mint to make a one cent coin and more than a nickel to make the five cent piece,” Rothman (D-9th Dist.) said in a statement submitted to the Congressional Record on Nov. 2. Rothman’s statement called attention to an opinion article in the New York Times written by a Bergen County freeholder that suggested alternate materials for penny production. (O’Neill, PolitiFact New Jersey)
