Legislation Seeks Steel Cents and Nickels

Two bills were introduced in the House of Representatives on December 15, 2011 which seek to immediately alter the metallic composition of the one cent and five cent coins. Although the text of the bills is not yet available, statements released by Rep. Steve Stivers who introduced the bills H.R. 3693 and H.R. 3694 indicate that the legislation would require the coins to be made from steel.
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The bills introduced by Stivers would require both coins to be made from steel, with the penny coated in copper. According to Stivers, the appearance of the coins would not change, just the materials to make them.
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The US Mint specifies that this coin weigh 5.000 g and be composed of 25% nickel (1.250 g) and the balance of copper (3.750 grams).

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Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner outlined how his department will find savings, including $286 million in the next fiscal year, by changing the materials that go into coins, replacing paper with electronic communications and consolidating internal agencies.

The effort to find efficiencies is part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to reduce budget deficits by $4 trillion over the next 10 years.

Geithner, in written testimony prepared for the House Committee on Appropriations, said a good portion of next year’s savings at Treasury will come from changing the composition of U.S. coins to more cost-effective materials.

“Currently, the costs of making the penny and the nickel are more than twice the face value of each of those coins,” Geithner said in his remarks.

The cost of making pennies and nickels are about twice the face value of the coins–2.4 cents for a penny and 11.2 cents for a nickel, the Treasury Department said earlier this month. Rising commodity prices have driven higher production costs. The Mint said it used 16,365 tons of copper, 2,311 tons of nickel and 11,844 tons of zinc to produce all coins in fiscal year 2011.

Changing the makeup of coins and improving the efficiency of currency production will save more than $75 million in the next fiscal year. In addition, the suspension of presidential dollar coin production, announced in December, will save another $50 million.
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dontdeBasemebro said:

debasement!

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