Obama wants cheaper pennies and nickels

As long as the standing Administration supports a stronger - meaning weaker dollar, those pesky little pennies and nickels will only get more expensive to produce. Eventually, Gresham’s law will release its citizen from shackles of expensive coins and paper notes to the freedom of the great cashless society provided by credit. After that, visionary citizens and fund managers will be allowed to melt their nickel hoards at a substantial profit.

Headline: Obama wants cheaper pennies and nickels

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The U.S. Mint is facing a problem -- especially during these penny-pinching times. It turns out it costs more to make pennies and nickels than the coins are worth.

And because of that, the Obama administration this week asked Congress for permission to change the mix of metal that goes to make pennies and nickels, an expensive recipe that has remained unchanged for more than 30 years.

To be precise, it cost 2.4 cents to make one penny in 2011 and about 11.2 cents for each nickel.

Given the number of coins that the mint produces -- 4.3 billion pennies and 914 million nickels last year alone, those costs add up pretty quickly: a little more than $100 million for each coin.

Source: money.cnn.com

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