You Need to Spend Money (a lot) to Make Money

While I was about to head out the door this morning, something on Headline News caught my ear.  I had never considered the cost of producing currency, hard money, cash, coins, etc. Apparently, it costs as much as three cents to make a penny!  Even worse, it costs eleven cents to make a nickel!  Why one earth are we still making coins if they cost more to make than they give in return? The monetary system in this country is broken in far more ways than we imagined.