Minting the penny costs taxpayers more than it is worth. From Wikipedia:
As of 2012, it costs the U.S. Mint 2.41 cents to make a cent because of the cost of materials and production. This figure includes the Mint’s fixed components for distribution and fabrication, estimated at $13 million in FY 2011. It also includes Mint overhead allocated to the penny, which was $17.7 million for 2011. Fixed costs and overhead would have to be absorbed by other circulating coins without the penny. The loss in profitability due to producing the one cent coin in the United States for the year of 2011 is $60,200,000. This is an increase from 2010, the year before, which had a production loss of $27,400,000.
With the penny having nearly no purchasing power, it makes little sense to keep it in production.



