This is a great story. The slowness the U.S. Mint is reacting to change is costing them. More than just the cost of the metals go into making pennies, so we could easily be close to 2 cents to produce a single penny. However, the U. S. Mint doesn’t exactly sell the money it makes, so why is it important the cost of making a penny is less than the penny itself?

The sales tax bit seemed to imply it would better not to have them or to have them round to the nearest nickel. Was I reading too much into that?

A Penny for Your Thoughts, and 1.4 Cents for the Penny – New York Times

WHAT happens if a penny is worth more than 1 cent?

That is an issue the United States Mint could soon face if the price of metals keeps rising. Already it costs the mint well more than a cent to make a penny.

This week the cost of the metals in a penny rose above 0.8 cents, more than twice the value of last fall. Because the government spends at least another six-tenths of a cent — above and beyond the cost of the metal — to make each penny, it will lose nearly half a cent on each new one it mints.

The real problem could come if metals prices rise so high that it would be economical to melt down pennies for the metals they contain.