A new federal report released by Congress last week showed that United States coins cost more to produce than they are worth.

The 400-page reported detailed that one penny costs 2 cents to make and distribute. It was also found that a nickel costs 11 cents to produce.

The federal government is struggling to find a cheaper option to make the coins but without changing the quality, or the size and look of each piece. The report showed the two-year process outlined by Congress of trials that were conducted at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, Penn.

New metal recipes were put to the test at the Mint's high-speed coin-producing facility and evaluations of 29 different alloys were made. However, a new and cheaper way of making the coins was not discovered that met the desired attributes.

"We want to let the data take us where it takes us," Mint Director Dick Peterson said Wednesday.

The Treasury Department stated that additional tests will be conducted in 2013 and a new creation method will not be fully endorsed by Congress until the desired expectations are met. While the government has been searching for means to save money, congressional auditors said that replacing dollar bills with coins could possibly save $4.4 billion over the course of the next 30 years, according to NBC News.

The price of metals has risen within the past few years, which gave the government cause to search for cheaper solutions to make coins.

"Pricing of steel, aluminum and zinc are pretty close to each other ... there are promising alternatives for the nickel, dime and quarter," Peterson said. "There wouldn't be any advantage to shift the composition of the penny, so we offset that cost with (savings from) other denominations."

Around 6 billion pennies are produced each year in the U.S.