Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Coin Modernization 
and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2008’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds as follows: 
(1) International demand along with market 
speculation for commodity metals has, over the past 
several years, increased the cost of producing circu-
lating coins in the United States. 
(2) In a July 30, 2007, letter to the Congress, 
the Secretary of the Treasury, with support of the 
Administration’s Office of Management and Budget, 
requested that legislation be put forward to author-
ize the Secretary of the Treasury to make changes 
to the composition of circulating coins. 
(3) The United States Mint has studied alter-
native metals for use in circulating coins, as noticed 
in its 2004 annual report. 
(4) In 1943, the United States Mint produced 
zinc-coated steel pennies in response to war-time de-
mands for copper. 
(5) The United States Mint gained further ex-
perience changing the metal content of pennies in
1982, when it began producing copper-coated zinc 
pennies as a result of rising copper prices. 
(6) The Royal Canadian Mint has produced for 
several years a copper-coated steel 1-cent coin that 
is similar to the United States penny at a signifi-
cantly lower cost than the cost to produce the 
United States penny. 
(7) Given the current cost to make a penny and 
volume of pennies minted, by simply reducing penny 
production costs to face value, the United States will 
save more than $500,000,000 in the next 10 years 
alone. 
(8) Reducing the cost to produce a nickel to 
face value will save the United States an additional 
$60,000,000 per year. 
(9) Commodity metal prices are often cyclical in 
nature, and can be inflated by speculation, so it is 
important that a solid trend in the rising price of a 
commodity metal be established before any change in 
the metal content of a coin is made. 
SEC. 3. IMMEDIATE REDUCTION IN THE COST OF PRO-
DUCING 1-CENT COINS THROUGH THE USE 
OF STEEL PENNIES. 
Subsection (c) of section 5112 of title 31, United 
States Code, is amended to read as follows:
‘‘(c) COMPOSITION OF 1-CENT AND 5-CENT COINS.— 
‘‘(1) 1-CENT COIN.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph 
(2), beginning 270 days after the date of the 
enactment of the Coin Modernization and Tax-
payer Savings Act of 2008, the 1-cent coin 
shall— 
‘‘(i) be produced primarily of steel; 
and 
‘‘(ii) meet such other specifications as 
the Secretary may determine to be appro-
priate, including any change in the weight 
from that specified in subsection (a)(6). 
‘‘(B) TREATMENT.—The 1-cent coin shall 
be treated to impart a copper color to the ap-
pearance of the coins so that the appearance is 
similar to 1-cent coins produced of a copper- 
zinc alloy. 
‘‘(C) EXCEPTION FOR LINCOLN BICENTEN-
NIAL NUMISMATIC PENNIES.—No provision of 
this paragraph shall apply with respect to 1- 
cent coins described in section 304 of the Presi-
dential $1 Coin Act of 2005 that are issued for 
numismatic purposes.
‘‘(2) ALTERNATIVE
1-CENT
COIN
COMPOSI-
TION.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—If, before the end of 
the 90-day period beginning on the date of the 
enactment of the Coin Modernization and Tax-
payer Savings Act of 2008, the Secretary deter-
mines that, with the addition of any other ele-
ment to any alloy of zinc and copper of which 
1-cent coins could have been composed as of the 
day before such date of enactment, there is a 
way— 
‘‘(i) to produce 1-cent coins of the 
same diameter, general composition, and 
general weight as 1-cent coins produced in 
accordance with this subsection as of the 
day before such date of enactment; and 
‘‘(ii) to achieve the goals of paragraph 
(1) by reducing the unit cost to produce 
the 1-cent coin to less than 1 cent while re-
taining such coin’s ease of use and ensur-
ing ease of co-circulation with 1-cent coins 
of the diameter and weight already circu-
lating as of such date of enactment for or-
dinary commerce,
the Secretary may add any such element and 
continue production of 1-cent coins of the same 
diameter, general composition, and general 
weight as 1-cent coins produced in accordance 
with this subsection as of the day before such 
date of enactment instead of complying with 
paragraph (1). 
‘‘(B) EFFECTIVE
PERIOD.—This para-
graph shall only apply if the change to the new 
composition and the subsequent drop in the 
production cost of the 1-cent coin referred to in 
subparagraph (A) can be achieved before the 
end of the 270-day period referred to in para-
graph (1). 
‘‘(C) REPORT
TO
THE
CONGRESS.—Any 
determination and action by the Secretary 
under subparagraph (A) shall be promptly re-
ported to the Congress.’’. 
SEC. 4. AUTHORITY TO CHANGE METALLIC CONTENT OF 5- 
CENT COINS TO LESS COSTLY ALTERNATIVE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (c) of section 5112 of 
title 31, United States Code, (as amended by section 3) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new para-
graph: 
‘‘(3) 5-CENT COIN.—
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—After the end of the 
2-year period beginning on the date of the en-
actment of the Coin Modernization and Tax-
payer Savings Act of 2008, the Secretary shall 
produce no 5-cent coin that is not primarily 
made of steel with a coating of nickel, that can 
co-circulate with the existing supply of 5-cent 
coins and work interchangeably in coin handling 
machines, except that— 
‘‘(i) the Secretary shall make no 
change to the content of the existing 5- 
cent coin if at that point the unit cost of 
production of such coins is lower than the 
face value of the coin; and 
‘‘(ii) if the report issued by the Sec-
retary pursuant to section 6 indicates that 
a different metallic content of circulating 
5-cent coins is both functional and inter-
changeable, 
and 
more 
economical 
to 
produce in both the short and long term, 
the Secretary shall propose such content to 
the Congress in the form of a legislative 
recommendation.
ican-owned manufacturers of commercial 
coin processing equipment, considers to be 
appropriate and in the public interest, 
after notice and opportunity for comment. 
‘‘(C) COMMENT
AND
SELECTION
PROC-
ESS.—In making any determination with re-
spect to any change in the weight and composi-
tion of the 5-cent coin, the Secretary shall enter 
into a formal rulemaking process that includes 
a hearing on a record in addition to the publi-
cation of notice and opportunity for comment.’’. 
(b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 
Section 5112(a)(5) of title 31, United States Code, is 
amended by striking ‘‘and weighs 5 grams’’. 
SEC. 5. AUTHORITY TO CONDUCT RESEARCH AND DEVEL-
OPMENT ON ALL CIRCULATING COINS. 
To accomplish the goals of this Act, the Secretary 
may conduct any appropriate testing within or without the 
Department of the Treasury, and may solicit input from 
or otherwise work in conjunction with entities within or 
without the Federal government including independent re-
search facilities or current or potential suppliers of the 
material used in volume production of circulating coins, 
to complete the report referred to in this Act and to de-
velop, evaluate or begin the use of new metallic material 
for such production. 
SEC. 6. BIENNIAL REPORT TO CONGRESS ON CURRENT 
STATUS OF COIN PRODUCTION COSTS AND 
ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVE CONTENT RE-
QUIRED. 
(a) BIENNIAL REPORT REQUIRED.—Before the end 
of the 270-day period beginning on enactment of this Act, 
and at 2-year intervals following the initial report, the Sec-
retary of the Treasury shall submit a report to the Com-
mittee on Financial Services of the House of Representa-
tives and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban 
Affairs of the Senate analyzing production costs for each 
circulating coin, cost trends, and possible new metallic ma-
terials or technologies for the production of circulating 
coins. 
(b) DETAILED RECOMMENDATIONS.—The reports re-
quired under this section shall contain detailed rec-
ommendations for any appropriate changes to the metallic 
content of circulating coins in such a form that the rec-
ommendations could be enacted into law as appropriate. 
(c) IMPROVED PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY.—The re-
ports required under this section shall include rec-
ommendations for changes in the methods of producing 
coins at the United States Mint that would further reduce
the costs to produce circulating coins, and include notes 
on any legislative changes that might be necessary to 
achieve such goals. 
(d) MINIMIZING CONVERSION COSTS.—The reports 
required under this section shall— 
(1) include no recommendation for new speci-
fications for producing a circulating coin that would 
require significant change to coin-accepting and 
coin-handling equipment to accommodate changes to 
all circulating coins simultaneously, except for any 
potential change to the 5-cent coin as authorized 
under section 4; and 
(2) to the greatest extent possible, recommend 
specifications that, while consistent with other por-
tions of this section and the amendments made by 
this Act, require no changes to coin-accepting or 
coin-handling equipment whatsoever to accommodate 
both coins produced with the new specifications and 
coins produced as of July 31, 2007. 
(e) FRAUD
PREVENTION.—The reports required 
under this section shall make no recommendation for a 
specification change that would facilitate or allow the use 
of a coin with a lesser value produced by another country, 
or the use of any token or other easily or regularly pro-
duced metal device of minimal value, in the place of a cir-
culating coin produced by the Secretary. 
Passed the House of Representatives May 8, 2008. 
Attest: 
Clerk.
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5512 
AN ACT 
To reduce the costs of producing 1-cent and 5-cent 
coins, provide authority to the Secretary of the 
Treasury to perform research and development 
on new metallic content for circulating coins, and 
to require biennial reports to Congress on circu-
lating coin production costs and possible alter-
native metallic content.