The cost of one-cent coins far exceeds the face value, or it is withdrawn from the market

> The cost of one-cent coins far exceeds its face value, or it is withdrawn from the market. The current cost of one-cent coins is 2.41 cents, more than double the face value, and due to the price of raw materials...

The current cost of one-cent coins is 2.41 cents, more than double the face value, and its cost will be higher as raw material prices continue to rise. Experts think maybe the penny should be taken off the market, and it seems President Obama agrees.

According to NBC News, Google's John Green asked President Obama last Friday, "Australia, Canada, New Zealand and many other countries have eliminated the penny. Why don't we do that?" Obama responded, "Any time we spend money on something that people don't actually use, that's something we should change." NBC said that the manufacturing cost of a one-cent coin in 2012 was 2.41 cents. The zinc and copper used to make one-cent coins are likely to continue to rise in price because China's manufacturing industry needs these materials and the cost will increase. Of course, the total expenditure on manufacturing one-cent coins last year was only $58 million, less than 0.1% of federal expenditures in 2012. But groups like Citizens to Retire the U.S. Penny have long called for the penny to be eliminated. In fact, the U.S. military has decided that pennies are useless: all Army and Air Force stores have a nickel minimum change. At a time when both parties are looking for ways to cut government spending, halting the production of pennies seems relatively painless and certainly not effective. Obama acknowledged that Washington has a lot of big things to do. In fact, Congress once tried to legislate a ban on the penny. In 2001, Republican Congressman Jim Kolbe proposed the "Legal Currency Modernization Act," which required the expiration of one-cent coins and required retailers to have a minimum unit of 5 cents for cash transactions. But that bill failed. After zinc costs doubled, Kolbe again proposed the "Currency Reform Law for Industrialized Countries" in 2006, which suffered the same fate. Perhaps the president could reduce the cost by changing the materials used to produce the one-cent coin without having to go through Congress. Of course, this isn't the first time a Lincoln-like coin has changed material: the 1982 one-cent piece was made from 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper to 95% copper and 5% zinc.