Interesting Article...

http://www.slate.com/id/2161901/

Producing coinage for collectors is lucrative. Since the Treasury spends about 12 cents to make a dollar coin, it makes 88 cents' profit whenever one is pulled from a pocket and stashed away...The Mint has raked in $4.6 billion thus far on its similar state-quarters program. Making money, it seems, is a decent way to make money.