The House passed a bill to make steel cents and nickels with steel cores, http://article.wn.com/view/2008/05/...aper_q/?template=cheetah-search-adv/index.txt
This may greatly accelerate the disappearance of the copper cent and even the zinc/copper cent. In fact, it may have the unintended consequence of causing a short term shortage of cents as the hoarding of the more valuable coins takes place.
Read carefully. This is far from passed as a for real thing. More than likely this, as so many other attempts, may fail. Again, they are stuck on the cent having a Copper coating or a Copper color. Then there is the problem of what type and grade of steel to use. Case hardened steel would play havoc on any dies to produce them. If magnetic like the 43 cents, would create problems with machines that use magnetic internals. If high grade stainless steel is used any Copper coating would not stick making the suggestion of a Copper coating not usable. If a softer steel is used, way to much rust in the near future. This is an easy bill to start but the details may make it linger for a long, long time.
How many current vending machines take pennies? I don't recall ever seeing one other than gumball machines, and they only rely on the diameter of the coin (and possibly the thickness) and not magnetic properties.
Coinstar machines count them for redemption for cash Then again the coinstar has a very different counting mechanism them vending machines, maybe it can be programed to accept the new cents
My bank's coin machines take Canadian cents, on up to the point at which they started making the steel plated ones in 1996 or so. At least the bank charges nothing for all the cents I dump in their machine, unlike usurious coinstar machines. Otherwise I would not be searching through 2500 cent boxes at a rate of a couple a week doing copper and wheat mining.
Since Coinstar machines take an, what is it, 8% cut off the top, they should be able to eat any changes to their machines required to accept steel cents.
