I 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5512 

To authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe the weights and 

the compositions of circulating coins, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 28, 2008 

Mr. SPACE (for himself, Mr. GUTIERREZ, and Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts) 

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL 

To authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe 

the weights and the compositions of circulating coins, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Coin Modernization 

5 and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2008’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds as follows: 

8 (1) International demand along with market 

9 speculation for commodity metals has, over the past 


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1 several years, increased the cost of producing circu2 lating coins in the United States. 

3 (2) In a July 30, 2007, letter to Congress, the 

4 Department of the Treasury, with support of the 

5 Administration’s Office of Management and Budget, 

6 requested that legislation be put forward to author7 ize the Secretary of the Treasury to make changes 

8 to the composition of circulating coins. 

9 (3) The United States Mint has studied alter10 native metals for use in circulating coins, as noticed 

11 in its 2004 annual report. 

12 (4) In 1943, the United States Mint produced 

13 zinc-coated steel pennies in response to war-time de14 mands for copper. 

15 (5) The United States Mint gained further ex16 perience changing the metal content of pennies in 

17 1982, when it began producing copper-coated zinc 

18 pennies as a result of rising copper prices. 

19 (6) The Royal Canadian Mint has produced for 

20 several years a copper-coated steel 1-cent coin that 

21 is similar to the United States penny at a signifi22 cantly lower cost than the cost to produce the 

23 United States penny. 

24 (7) Given the current cost to make a penny and 

25 volume of pennies minted, by simply reducing penny 


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1 production costs to face value, the United States will 

2 save nearly $600,000,000 dollars in the next 10 

3 years alone. 

4 (8) Removing the statutory language that re5 quires specific weights and content for circulating 

6 coins will allow the Secretary of the Treasury to 

7 make adjustments to any circulating coin when ris8 ing metal prices makes its production costs prohibi9 tive, which will create additional future savings to 

10 the government. 

11 (9) Commodity metal prices are often cyclical in 

12 nature, and can be inflated by speculation, so it is 

13 important that a solid trend in the rising price of a 

14 commodity metal be established before any change in 

15 the metal content of a coin is made. 

16 (10) Congress has delegated the authority to 

17 coin money to the Secretary of the Treasury since 

18 1792. 

19 (11) Congress has additionally delegated au20 thority to the Secretary of the Treasury to deter21 mine the composition of some coins. 

22 (12) The United States $1 Coin Act of 1997 

23 (31 U.S.C. 5101 nt.) delegated to the Secretary the 

24 authority to determine the composition of the dollar 

25 coin. 


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1 (13) In Public Law 93–441, Congress gave the 

2 Secretary the authority to determine the weights and 

3 alloys of the copper and zinc in 1-cent coins. 

4 SEC. 3. WEIGHTS AND COMPOSITIONS OF CIRCULATING 

5 COINS. 

6 (a) WEIGHT AND COMPOSITION OF CIRCULATING

7 COINS DETERMINED BY THE SECRETARY.—Subsection 

8 (c) of section 5112 of title 31, United States Code, is 

9 amended to read as follows: 

10 ‘‘(c) WEIGHT AND COMPOSITION OF COINS.— 

11 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall pre12 scribe the weight and the composition of the dollar, 

13 half dollar, quarter dollar, dime, 5-cent, and 1-cent 

14 coins. The coins shall be coined, minted and mate15 rials fabricated in the United States. 

16 ‘‘(2) FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED.—In pre17 scribing the weight and the composition of the dol18 lar, half dollar, quarter dollar, dime, 5-cent, and 1- 

19 cent coins, the Secretary shall consider— 

20 ‘‘(A) factors relevant to the potential im21 pact of any revisions to the weight and composi22 tion of the material on the current coin sup23 pliers; 

24 ‘‘(B) factors relevant to the acceptability of 

25 new coinage materials, including the effect on 


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1 vending machines and commercial coin proc2 essing equipment; making certain any new coins 

3 work without interruption in existing coin ac4 ceptance equipment without modification; and 

5 ‘‘(C) such other factors that the Secretary, 

6 in consultation with merchants who would be 

7 affected by any change in the weight and com8 position of currency denominations, vending 

9 machine and other coin acceptor manufacturers, 

10 vending machine owners and operators, transit 

11 officials, municipal parking officials, depository 

12 institutions, coin and currency handlers, ar13 mored-car operators, car wash operators, and 

14 American-owned manufacturers of commercial 

15 coin processing equipment, considers to be ap16 propriate and in the public interest, in accord17 ance with subchapter II of chapter 5 of title 5, 

18 United States Code. 

19 ‘‘(3) COMMENT AND SELECTION PROCESS.—In 

20 making any determination with respect to any 

21 change in the weight and composition of any coin, 

22 the Secretary shall enter into a formal rulemaking 

23 process.’’. 

24 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 


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1 (1) Section 5112(a) of title 31, United States 

2 Code, is amended— 

3 (A) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘and 

4 weighs 11.34 grams’’; 

5 (B) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘and 

6 weighs 5.67 grams’’; 

7 (C) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘and 

8 weighs 2.268 grams’’; 

9 (D) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘and 

10 weighs 5 grams’’; and 

11 (E) by striking paragraph (6) and insert12 ing the following new paragraph: 

13 ‘‘(6) A 1-cent coin that is 0.75 inch in diame14 ter.’’. 

15 (2) Section 5112(b) of title 31, United States 

16 Code, is amended to read as follows: 

17 ‘‘(b) SPECIFICATIONS FOR $1 COINS AND GOLD

18 COINS.—The $1 coin shall be golden in color, have a dis19 tinctive edge, have tactile and visual features that make 

20 the denomination of the coin readily discernible, be coined, 

21 be minted and material fabricated in the United States, 

22 and have similar metallic, anti-counterfeiting properties as 

23 United States coinage in circulation on the date of enact24 ment of the United States $1 Coin Act of 1997. In mint25 ing gold coins, the Secretary shall use alloys that vary not 


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1 more than 0.1 percent from the percent of gold required. 

2 The specifications for alloys are by weight.’’. 

3 (3) Section 5113(a) of title 31, United States 

4 Code, is amended— 

5 (A) in the 1st sentence, by striking ‘‘and 

6 dime coins’’ and inserting ‘‘dime, 5-cent, and 1- 

7 cent coins.’’; and 

8 (B) by striking the second and third sen9 tences. 

10 (c) EFFECTIVE DATES.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para12 graph (2), the amendments made by this section as 

13 it pertains to each individual coin, other than sub14 section (b)(1)(E), shall take effect at the end of the 

15 fiscal year which is the 5th of 5 sequential fiscal 

16 years in each of which the net cost of producing 

17 such circulating coins under section 5112 of title 31, 

18 United States Code, other than the 1-cent coin, has 

19 exceeded the total face value of such coin. 

20 (2) 1-CENT COIN.—The amendments made by 

21 this section, to the extent such amendments relate to 

22 the 1-cent coin, shall take effect as of the date of 

23 the enactment of this Act, subject to the amendment 

24 made by section 4. 


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1 SEC. 4. IMMEDIATE REDUCTION IN THE COST OF PRO2 DUCING PENNIES THROUGH THE USE OF 

3 STEEL PENNIES. 

4 Subsection (c) of section 5112 of title 31, United 

5 States Code, (as amended by section 3(a)) is amended by 

6 adding at the end the following by adding at the end the 

7 following new paragraph: 

8 ‘‘(4) INTERIM STEEL 1-CENT COIN.— 

9 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—During the period be10 ginning 180 days after the date of the enact11 ment of the Coin Modernization and Taxpayer 

12 Savings Act of 2008 and ending on the effective 

13 date of any subsequent change by the Secretary 

14 of the composition of the 1-cent coin under 

15 paragraph (1), the 1-cent coin shall— 

16 ‘‘(i) be produced primarily of steel; 

17 and 

18 ‘‘(ii) meet such other specifications as 

19 the Secretary may determine to be appro20 priate, including any change in the weight 

21 from that specified in subsection (a)(6). 

22 ‘‘(B) TREATMENT.—The 1-cent coin shall 

23 be treated to impart a copper color to the ap24 pearance of the coins so that the appearance is 

25 similar to 1-cent coins produced of a copper26 zinc alloy. 


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1 ‘‘(C) EXCEPTION FOR LINCOLN BICENTEN2 NIAL NUMISMATIC PENNIES.—No provision of 

3 this paragraph shall apply with respect to 1- 

4 cent coins described in section 304 of the Presi5 dential $1 Coin Act of 2005 that are issued for 

6 numismatic purposes.’’. 

Æ 


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