http://www.coinnews.net/2008/05/09/house-passes-bill-for-steel-cent-and-nickel-4085/ Yesterday, the House passed a law authorizing the minting of pennies and nickels out of copper coated steel. Whether it passes the Senate and President's signing is a different story.
Coated steel works fine up here in Canada, but the coins make a "thunk" sound when you drop them. They just don't sound like money anymore. While the US is debating what to make the cent out of, we're at least pondering whether or not it's worth continuing to make at all. Of course, the US would be the LAST place to get rid of a denomination.
There has been a bill introduced in Congress to eliminate the penny and the one dollar bill. ELiminating the penny would require rounding prices up or down to the nearest 5 cents. Eliminating the one dollar bill (like the civilized world has done) wouldn't hurt anything as we have perfectly good dollar coins and $2 bills up the wazoo. Of course this bill will go nowhere. Americans just can't accept change (no pun intended). http://www.pennies.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=57
In my opinion, it hasn't sounded like money since Roosevelt. Have you ever heard gold coins clink together? Majestic. Lol.
This bill passed the House on May 8th. Did they pass it again instead of doing something more important? Apparently not the date they have for the final version of the text is also May 8th. . Have to wonder if that last word is a typo or a Freudian slip. Someone needs to explain physics/chemistry to the House. They require the Mint to make a coin out of a material (steel) that is 12 to 20% lighter than the current material and also require it to circulate interchangably with the current coins and work in vending machines without the owners having to modify the machines. Now since the machines depend on the weight, diameter, and thickness of the coin (among other things), and since many use magnetism to reject slugs, they are going to have to use a non-magnetic steel alloy, and somehow increase the density of the material 16%. Well the only way to do that is add elements with a density significantly greater than Nickel, and the only one that is cheaper than nickel is lead. I can see a lot of fun trying to come up with a lead steel alloy. Lead melts at 620 F while the steel will melt around 2795 F. On the other hand it might work because the Lead won't boil off until 3165 F. Still I don't think it will be politically possible to put Lead in our coins.
Agreed. But copper still makes a decent sound, and even copper-coated zinc makes a sound compared to the copper-coated steel. Once upon a time, coins were worth something. If you have to change what it's made out of, then it's not worth anything anymore. (Just my unsolicited opinion.)
