US Nickel's Unsustainable Costs Spark Calls to Retire It
The US nickel, featuring Thomas Jefferson on its front, is losing money for taxpayers. It costs about thirteen cents to produce a single nickel, but it only has a face value of five cents.
The main culprit behind this soaring cost is the global demand for copper and nickel, which are used in nickels. The global supply chain crunches have driven base metal prices higher, making it an expensive chore to mint coins.
This is not just a minor accounting headache. Every time the Mint stamps a five-cent piece, it loses eight cents. Over billions of coins minted each year, those losses add up fast. Taxpayers end up footing a bill worth tens of millions annually.
Other countries have already navigated this exact financial dilemma. Canada successfully phased out its physical penny over a decade ago. New Zealand and Australia eliminated five-cent coins with great success. Retailers simply rounded cash totals to the nearest ten cents, while digital payments and credit card transactions remained exact down to the cent.