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ERROR: type should be string, got "https://online.wsj.com/articles/easy-to-lose-and-expensive-to-produce-is-the-penny-worth-it-1411145870\nEasy to Lose and Expensive to Produce: Is the Penny Worth It?\nBillions Are Minted Every Year, but They Cost More Than Their Face Value to Make\nFreshly minted pennies in 2009.\nJo Craven McGinty\n@mcjomcg\njo.mcginty@wsj.com\nUpdated Sept. 19, 2014 11:09 pm ET\nAmericans place little value on the penny, and it's costing us millions each year.\nConsumers accumulate coins during cash transactions, but they are less likely to spend pennies on future purchases than other coins. As a result, a significant number of one-cent coins don't continue to circulate.\nBusinesses still need them to make change, however, so the U.S. Mint continually replenishes the supply, producing far more pennies than any other coin. So far this year, the Mint has produced 7 billion pennies—more than nickels, dimes and quarters combined.\n\"We keep making the penny because the banks ask for it,\" said Tom Jurkowsky, a spokesperson for the U.S. Mint.\nDemand for coins works like this: Businesses deposit excess cash at banks, swapping out bills and coins as needed to get the right mix of change to serve customers. Depository banks make a similar transaction, returning excess currency to the Federal Reserve and placing orders for the denominations they need. The Fed responds to those orders by redistributing cash that it stores or collects. When the Fed doesn't have enough coins to meet demand, it orders new ones from the Mint.\nA substantial amount of change is lost, discarded or destroyed, contributing to the demand for new coins, and pennies get the most dismissive treatment. Since 2000, 21% of pennies have gone missing, nearly twice the proportion of quarters, according to data provided by the Fed.\nThis year, the Mint has spent more than $114 million to make pennies, compared with $83.7 million for nickels, $72.3 million for dimes and $133 million for quarters.\nAdding to the expense is the fact that pennies—like nickels—cost more than their face value to produce. In 2011, at their peak, each penny cost 2.41 cents to make, while nickels cost 11.18 cents. Quarters, in comparison, cost 11.14 cents per unit to make that year.\nThat sounds like a bad deal, but coins last 30 years or more, and if they remain in circulation, it might not seem like such a terrible investment.\n\"They may cost more to produce,\" said Mallory Duncan, a senior vice president for the National Retail Federation, \"but a nickel is used thousands of times.\"\nThose who support the penny, and oppose its elimination, argue that rounding charges will penalize consumers. What do the numbers say?\nVarious bills have been introduced to eliminate the penny, but none has passed, and in 2010, Congress directed the Mint to look for cheaper ways to make coins, such as changing their composition, but the Mint has given up on trying to make a penny for less than a cent.\n\"We just can't do it,\" Mr. Jurkowsky said. This year, the penny cost 1.63 cents per unit.\nThe cost of producing pennies and other coins depends in part on metal prices, and, as The Wall Street Journal reported recently, the price of zinc, the primary metal used in pennies, is at a three-year high.\nPennies once were 95% copper, but because of rising costs, the composition was changed in 1982 to 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper. (Melting the coins to turn a profit on the valuable metals is illegal.)\nThe zinc industry, naturally, supports keeping the penny in circulation, and its arguments in favor of the coin can be found at the website for Americans for Common Cents, which is run by a firm that lobbies on behalf of the industry. Other groups, such as Citizens to Retire the U.S. Penny, founded by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics professor, argue against producing the coin.\nMore From WSJ\n5 Things to Read Today\nFrom a practical perspective, dropping the penny is doable. Charges would still be in cents, and payment for cash transactions could be rounded up or down—a practice that has something of a precedent: Gasoline charges already include a decimal place, the mill, for which no coin exists, and gas purchases are rounded up.\nIf the U.S. eliminated the penny, it wouldn't be the first coin it abandoned. In the 1800s, the country minted three-, two- and half-cent coins, among other defunct denominations. Nor would it be the first country to abolish the cent. Canada decided to get rid of its penny in 2012. In the 1990s, Australia and New Zealand withdrew their one- and two-cent coins. And other countries have eliminated their lowest-value currency.\n\"New Zealand even withdrew the five-cent coin in 2006,\" Jeff Starck, a senior editor at Coin World, said.\nOn the other hand, changing the composition of coins is trickier than it sounds. Vending machines, armored trucks, banks and others gauge the value of coins by their weight and size or by their electromagnetic signature. Changing any of those properties would create expensive logistical headaches for businesses that handle coins.\n\"Maybe we are able to make coins for a little bit cheaper price, but what is the potential cost to, say, the vending-machine industry?\" Mr. Jurkowsky said. \"It affects large groups of stakeholders.\"\nThe Mint will make its next biennial report on the status of coin production costs to Congress in December.\nWrite to Jo Craven McGinty at Jo.McGinty@wsj.com"