It Costs 10 Cents To Manufacture A Nickel

and it costs 1.7 cents to manufacture a penny. Interesting:

"Primarily because zinc, too, has soared in value, producing a penny now costs about 1.7 cents. Since the Mint currently manufactures more than seven billion pennies a year and “sells” them to the Federal Reserve at their face value, the Treasury incurs an annual penny deficit of about fifty million dollars—a condition known in the coin world as “negative seigniorage.”

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_owen#ixzz1LYyDsHp7