Last I heard the Mint was losing about $150 million a year just making the cents. And I know nickels cost more than face value to make.
According to the 2014 Mint report (the 2015 isn't out yet) the mint lost $53 million dollars making cents and $38 million making five cent pieces for a total loss on those two coins of $91 million. They have been losing money on those two coins for at least 10 years now to the tune of $665 million.
However, it only costs the mint 5.65 cents to produce a dime and 11.3 cents for a quarter. Taking all mintage figures for the four coins, there is actually a net profit (a very large one!).
nickel-plated steel, layered plated steel, or stainless steel.. should make beach metal detecting easier. Just bring a large magnet!
Yes they do still make a profit. They made 406 million on the dimes and quarters in 2014, and lost 91 million on the cents and five cents. Yeah they made money so they could afford to throw away almost 25% of what they made. Fortunately the number of quarters have been increasing for the past two years In 1012 they made $150 million on the dimes and quarters and lost 109 million on the cents and five cents
The easiest solution is to slowly reduce minting the loss making coins, i.e. cents and nickels and increase the production of more profitable coins such as dimes and quarters. Of course, at the same time, try to promote the use of half dollars and dollar coins as they are definitely MORE profitable. There's another thread going on on this topic.
Not so easy to do. Since the almost worthless cents and five cent pieces pretty much do a one way trip from the Mint to the Fed to the banks to busiesses to consumers to change jars, it is those two denominations that are always in short supply. So the banks clammer for more from the Fed and the Fed requests more from the mint. The dimes and quarters tend to remain in circuation so the banks have a more steady supply of those.
