How Much Does It Cost To Make A Nickel?

Published on October 7, 2025 | Prices Last Reviewed for Freshness: November 2025
Written by Alec Pow - Economic & Pricing Investigator | Content Reviewed by CFA Alexander Popinker

Educational content; not financial advice. Prices are estimates; confirm current rates, fees, taxes, and terms with providers or official sources.

The U.S. five-cent coin looks simple, but the question behind it is not. How much does it cost to make a nickel? The answer shifts with metal markets, factory overhead, and annual output. This guide uses the latest official numbers and shows why the five-cent piece is often produced at a loss, what drives that gap, and what other countries have done to contain similar costs—see the Mint’s reported production costs for 2024.

You’ll get the current per-coin figure, a plain-English breakdown of materials and operations, how copper and nickel prices move the bill, and a comparison with other denominations. There’s one concise table, a worked example, and a short FAQ at the end.

Article Insights

• The 2024 unit cost for a nickel was 13.78 cents, well above 5 cents face value.
• Nickels generated a $17.7 million seigniorage loss in 2024, offset by gains on dimes and quarters.
• Composition is 75% copper, 25% nickel, tying costs to commodity markets.
• Canada contained costs by switching many coins to plated steel and retiring the penny with cash-rounding rules.
• Rare nickels can sell for millions—collector economics are a different universe from production costs.

How Much Does It Cost To Make A Nickel?

In fiscal year 2024, it cost the U.S. Mint 13.78 cents per coin to make and distribute a Jefferson nickel. The face value is 5 cents, so each piece generated negative 8.78 cents in seigniorage—the difference between face value and total minting and delivery expense. That’s a loss. The math is simple.

In plain terms: 2024’s nickels lost money; fewer coins shipped than the year before, so fixed costs were spread over fewer units; and metals did the rest.

Breakdown of Nickel Production Costs

Think of the total as a stack of line items. Metals dominate, because the Mint buys long coils of cupronickel and punches blanks by the thousands each minute. After blanking come annealing, washing, upsetting, striking, inspection, bagging, and shipment to Federal Reserve coin terminals—each step adding a sliver of energy, labor, tooling, packaging, and logistics. For a quick tour, the Mint’s coin production process page walks through the flow.

The Annual Report bundles those slivers under metal, fabrication, and distribution. Directionally: when copper or nickel climb, the metal slice grows fast; when output drops, overhead per coin rises. Both pushed 2024’s nickel cost into double digits.

Material Composition and Price Impact

A U.S. nickel is 75% copper and 25% nickel by mass; it weighs 5.00 grams and measures 21.21 mm across. That alloy is durable and has the electromagnetic “signature” needed for vending and validators, but it exposes the Mint to commodity risk.

Global nickel prices swung hard—peaking in 2022, easing into 2024–2025—while copper pushed near cycle highs in 2025. Even with nickel drifting toward mid-teens (thousand USD/ton) and copper hovering near five digits, the blend still makes for a costly blank before a single press stroke. Nickel’s path is captured in time-series data, and copper’s outlook popped up in recent market notes.

Seigniorage and Economic Implications

Seigniorage from circulating coins funds Mint operations and flows to the Treasury, so negative seigniorage on nickels and cents must be offset by profits on dimes, quarters, and halves. That cross-subsidy was very real in 2024. Researchers at the Richmond Fed modeled the trade-offs if low-value coins were phased out, finding rounding effects for consumers to be small but worth weighing; see the 2025 economic brief.

Should the Nickel Be Eliminated?

Other countries solved similar problems by changing metal, not scrapping denominations. Canada shifted base-metal coins to multi-ply plated steel to hit the right electromagnetic signature with less metal, then eliminated its penny in 2013 with clear cash-rounding rules.

In the U.S., composition is set by law. The Mint can research alternatives, but Congress would need to approve a change to the five-cent alloy, and industry would need time to recalibrate machines and qualify suppliers. (For background on how the Mint actually makes coins, see its production overview.)

Comparisons with Other U.S. Coins

Here’s 2024 by denomination—unit costs versus face value:

Numismatic and Collector Value

Collectors see nickels very differently. A 1913 Liberty Head nickel sold for $4.56 million in 2018, and another specimen later traded privately for a sum “exceeding $4 million” (Stack’s Bowers note). Even ordinary Jefferson nickels have an odd chapter: from 1942–1945 the Mint struck “war nickels” with 35% silver—look for the big mint mark above Monticello (see the Jefferson Nickel overview).

Minting Process Behind the Nickel

Coils of copper-nickel arrive at the Mint, get straightened, and meet a blanking press that punches out circular discs. Blanks are annealed, washed, rimmed in an upsetting mill to form planchets, then struck between dies at high speed. Coins are counted, bagged, weighed, and shipped to Federal Reserve Banks. For a behind-the-scenes look at getting coins into circulation, peek at the Mint’s Inside the Mint post. Coins are heavy; logistics are part of the bill.

Historical Cost Trends

For most of the last two decades, nickels have cost more than 5 cents to make, and for nineteen straight years both the cent and nickel exceeded face value on unit cost. 2023 sat around the 11.5-cent mark; 2024 climbed into the 13s as metals and lower volume raised unit costs.

What Do Coins Cost Elsewhere?

Canada’s strategy is transparent: move base-metal coins to plated steel, retire the penny, and round cash totals to the nearest 5 cents. Ottawa estimated about C$11 million in annual savings from ending penny production, while plating reduced exposure to metal spikes.

Environmental & Sustainability Considerations

Every coin begins with mining, refining, and fabrication. Plated-steel designs reduce total copper and nickel per coin and are easier to reclaim at end-of-life. On the U.S. side, better die-life management, more efficient annealing, and smarter logistics can chip away at costs and emissions. Small wins add up across billions of pieces.

What a 100-Million-Nickel Run Costs

Use the 2024 unit figure: 100,000,000 nickels × $0.1378 = $13,780,000 in production and distribution cost. Face value is $5,000,000. Implied seigniorage: −$8,780,000. Positive margins on other denominations have to plug that hole.

Hidden Costs & Practical Add-Ons

Line items that rarely get headlines but matter: coil fabrication fees and scrap credits, annealing fuel and maintenance downtime, die polishing and replacement, bagging and pallets, insurance, and Fed-side handling and security. Each is small alone; together they move the needle.

Legal Note: Melting Nickels Is Illegal

Because melt value can exceed face value during commodity spikes, Treasury rules bar melting and bulk export of cents and nickels. See the eCFR rule at 31 CFR Part 82 and the original Federal Register notice. Narrow exceptions exist (e.g., licensed recyclers, wartime silver-alloy nickels).

FAQs

How much does it cost to make a nickel in 2025?
The latest official number covers FY2024 at 13.78 cents per coin. The Mint will publish 2025 data after the fiscal year closes. Directionally, metals still dominate the bill.

Why does the Mint lose money on nickels?
Because the alloy is mostly copper with some nickel, and at recent commodity prices the blank, fabrication, and distribution exceed $0.05. Lower overall shipments in 2024 also raised fixed cost per coin.

What is the cheapest U.S. coin to produce?
In 2024, dimes and quarters were produced below face value on a per-coin basis, which is why they recorded positive seigniorage.

Is the nickel being phased out?
No. There’s no enacted law eliminating the U.S. nickel. Policymakers periodically weigh composition changes, which would require Congressional approval and time for vending calibration and supplier qualification.