A nickel costs... 7 cents?

So as of recently, pennies cost 1.4 cents to manufacture (including cost of metal and processing).  Nickels now cost 7 cents to make (5.25 for the metal + 1.5 to strike).  You don't have to be a math genius to figure out that the government is losing money making money.

The estimated loss over all?  "The mint expects to lose $32 million producing pennies and nickels this year and expects gains on the production of the dime and quarter to drop by $45 million. That's $77 million less for the Treasury." (From here)

No wonder there's such a large national deficit.

Possible solutions?  Different material?  Get rid of coins all together?