The United States' penny and nickel are economically inefficient, both to mint and to use. The penny, worth 1 cent ($0.01), costs 1.4 cents ($0.014) to produce, and the nickel, worth 5 cents ($0.05), costs 7.4 cents ($0.074) to produce. For the Fiscal Year of 2015, the United States lost $74.4 million in the minting of the penny and nickel.
Additionally, the penny and the nickel are worth so little so as to make them worthless and undesirable in consumer transactions, most notably in coin-operated machines.
It is ridiculous to think of a scenario such as the aforementioned, in which one spends more than one receives for items that are unusable in a modern setting, as being economical.
The continued minting of the penny and the nickel is wasteful to the Mint and unhelpful to the public.