Abolish the penny! 
 
 According to Time magazine Dec 27, 2016 
 
 The penny now costs more to make than it's worth. The penny might be more trouble than it's worth. The cost to produce the one-cent coin increased to 1.5 cents during 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported. In 2015, the penny cost 1.43 cents to make, while in 2014, its production value was 1.66 cents. 
 
 The president and Congress is constantly cutting funds to important programs to save money. Here’s a easy way to cut the budget plus get rid of a coin no one really likes or needs. Our bases overseas do not use pennies. The lowest denomination is the nickel. The only pennies you see overseas are those brought over by new recruits. ||||| Pennies aren’t cheap. 
 
 The one-cent US coin, mostly made of zinc with a little bit of copper, is the most abundant coin in the country. Last year, the US Mint produced more than 8.4 billion pennies for circulation. Between production costs and shipping, they cost $0.0182 each, which totaled to $69 million (pdf, p. 9) in losses compared to their total value—the biggest in nine years. This is likely due to the rising cost of zinc for use in heavy industry, construction, machine and ship building, and steel production. 
 
 Nickels have cost more to make than their monetary value for over a decade. The five-cent coins—75% copper and 25% nickel—cost about seven cents each to produce last year. Prices for copper have surgedIt’s a key ingredient in any kind of circuit or wiring, and the rise of electric cars in particular has put stress on the market. Nickel has also gotten more expensive for its use in stainless steels. 
 
 Fortunately, dimes and quarters are cheaper to make, costing less than their monetary value. So the Mint makes up the losses incurred on pennies and nickels with its 10- and 25-cent coins, and last year reported making $391.5 million in seigniorage.
– It costs more than a penny to make a penny. The US Mint produced more than 8.4 billion of the one-cent coins last year, at a cost of $0.0182 each with production costs and shipping taken into account. That means $69 million was lost when compared to the pennies' total value, Quartz reports, the biggest loss in nine years. That's probably because zinc (pennies are made mostly of zinc, with a small amount of copper) has been rising in price. Nickels, which are worth five cents, cost seven cents each to make, but dimes and quarters cost less than their value to produce, which ends up making up for the losses associated with pennies and nickels. Even so, petitions abound on the internet to abolish the penny and nickel.