Rant not aimed at you, rembrandt.

I simply never understood the issue that a penny costs more than a penny to make. A penny is not a store of wealth like a gold or silver coin. It's made to transfer wealth physically - unlike using zeros and ones as in much of today's transfer of wealth.
Pennies, for all intents and purposes are indescribable. 100 year old pennies are still mostly useable. Their per use cost must be infinitesimally small. So if they cost 50 cents to make, the only argument is whether they are useful or not. A case can be made that they are no longer useful. (I don't buy that, but I understand the argument).
Sorry. End of rant.