Help with Homework on Pennies

Bothuwui

I'm in an accounting class in my MBA program, and could use a little help on my homework. I want to do a cost analysis of the US Mint, specifically their cent production. I need to find a breakout of the cost in making a cent. I can get the total mintage off of the US Mint website, but would like to figure out the fixed and variable costs that go into the production of the penny. Any help would be appreciated.

xbob

The September 2004 CoinAge had an article about this subject written by David L. Ganz.

It's very detailed about various studies over the years that tried to show the cent should be eliminated from use based on various economics.

From the article:
The GAO (Government Accounting Office) study in 1996 showed that profit from cent production vs. face value is $0.0003 per coin. On 7 billion coins, that's an annual profit of $2 million.

I hope that helps.

Bothuwui

Nevermind, I found it. Page 35 of the 2003 Annual Report for the US Mint. It's actually pretty interesting reading overall.
2003 U.S. Mint Annual Report