The MTA buttresses the penny lobby with its latest fare hike:

The MTA is rolling out a 10-trip, pay-per-ride MetroCard — with a peculiar price: $17.39

And the agency will soon start selling a 30-trip pay-per-ride with a $52.17 price tag.

The move is intended to provide an easy-math option for riders wanting to buy cash-based bonus MetroCards with a specific amount of trips — and no spare change in value.

Another reason: MetroCard vending machines can provide only limited types of change.

But one transit worker dubbed the options “wacko.They just look odd.”

Another worker quipped, “This is going to put the Board of Education to the ultimate test.”

Under the scheme, the $2 fare remains the same but the easy-math 20% bonus — buy five trips and get a sixth free — is being reduced to 15%.

That means a rider who gives a token booth clerk $8 will get a card with four trips — and $1.20 remaining toward the future purchase of another ride. MetroCards can be refilled at vending machines and booths.

The 10-trip oddball card — providing 10 subway or local bus rides, and free transfers — equates to $20 in value for $17.39.

The 30-trip oddball amounts to $60 in value — for $52.17.