Coins would be minted with steel rather than minerals imported from outside the country to help reduce costs under bipartisan legislation recently introduced by U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH).
The Cents and Sensibility Act would require pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters to be produced from American steel, with pennies being dipped in copper, to address rising production costs since 2006.
“This legislation is a common sense solution to lower the cost of minting our coins,” Stivers said. “Not only does this save taxpayer dollars in the production of the coins, it will also allow American steel to be used in production that can be manufactured in many of our communities.”
The cost of producing pennies with copper and zinc, and nickels, dimes and quarters using copper and nickel now costs more than the face value of the coins. Pennies cost 1.5 cents to produce, and nickels cost 6.3 cents, the most recent report from the U.S. Mint said.
The U.S. government could save approximately $2 billion in production costs over a 10-year period by shifting from precious metal coin composition to American-made steel, according to a Navigant Consulting report, which focused on altering the composition of nickels, dimes and quarters.
U.S. Reps. Pat Tiberi (R-OH) and Joyce Beatty (D-OH) are original cosponsors of the Cents and Sensibility Act.