WASHINGTON (AP) -- Further evidence that times are tough: It now costs more than a penny to make a penny. And the cost of a 5-cent coin is more than 7½ cents.
Surging prices for copper, zinc and nickel have some in Congress trying to bring back the steel-made pennies of World War II, and maybe using steel for the 5-cent nickels, as well.
Copper and nickel prices have tripled since 2003, and the price of zinc has quadrupled, said Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez, whose House of Representatives subcommittee oversees the U.S. Mint.
Keeping the coin content means ''contributing to our national debt by almost as much as the coin is worth,'' Gutierrez said.
A penny, which consists of 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper, cost 1.26 cents (euro.008) to make as of Tuesday. A nickel -- 75 percent copper and the rest nickel -- cost 7.7 cents (euro.05), based on current commodity prices, according to the Mint.
That is down from the end of the 2007, when even higher metal prices drove the penny's cost to 1.67 cents (euro.01), according to the Mint. The cost of making a nickel then was nearly a dime.
Gutierrez estimated that striking the two coins at costs well above their face value set the Treasury and taxpayers back about $100 million (euro64.4 million) last year alone.
A lousy deal, lawmakers have concluded. On Tuesday, the House debated a bill that directs the Treasury secretary to ''prescribe'' -- suggest -- a new, more economical composition of the nickel and the penny. A vote was delayed because of Republican procedural moves and is expected later in the week.
