[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5512 Introduced in House (IH)]







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.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 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 circulating coins in the United States.
            (2) In a July 30, 2007, letter to Congress, the Department 
        of the Treasury, with support of the Administration's Office of 
        Management and Budget, requested that legislation be put 
        forward to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to make 
        changes to the composition of circulating coins.
            (3) The United States Mint has studied alternative 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 demands for copper.
            (5) The United States Mint gained further experience 
        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 significantly 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 nearly $600,000,000 
        dollars in the next 10 years alone.
            (8) Removing the statutory language that requires specific 
        weights and content for circulating coins will allow the 
        Secretary of the Treasury to make adjustments to any 
        circulating coin when rising metal prices makes its production 
        costs prohibitive, which will create additional future savings 
        to the government.
            (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.
            (10) Congress has delegated the authority to coin money to 
        the Secretary of the Treasury since 1792.
            (11) Congress has additionally delegated authority to the 
        Secretary of the Treasury to determine the composition of some 
        coins.
            (12) The United States $1 Coin Act of 1997 (31 U.S.C. 5101 
        nt.) delegated to the Secretary the authority to determine the 
        composition of the dollar coin.
            (13) In Public Law 93-441, Congress gave the Secretary the 
        authority to determine the weights and alloys of the copper and 
        zinc in 1-cent coins.

SEC. 3. WEIGHTS AND COMPOSITIONS OF CIRCULATING COINS.

    (a) Weight and Composition of Circulating Coins Determined by the 
Secretary.--Subsection (c) of section 5112 of title 31, United States 
Code, is amended to read as follows:
    ``(c) Weight and Composition of Coins.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Secretary shall prescribe the weight 
        and the composition of the dollar, half dollar, quarter dollar, 
        dime, 5-cent, and 1-cent coins. The coins shall be coined, 
        minted and materials fabricated in the United States.
            ``(2) Factors to be considered.--In prescribing the weight 
        and the composition of the dollar, half dollar, quarter dollar, 
        dime, 5-cent, and 1-cent coins, the Secretary shall consider--
                    ``(A) factors relevant to the potential impact of 
                any revisions to the weight and composition of the 
                material on the current coin suppliers;
                    ``(B) factors relevant to the acceptability of new 
                coinage materials, including the effect on vending 
                machines and commercial coin processing equipment; 
                making certain any new coins work without interruption 
                in existing coin acceptance equipment without 
                modification; and
                    ``(C) such other factors that the Secretary, in 
                consultation with merchants who would be affected by 
                any change in the weight and composition of currency 
                denominations, vending machine and other coin acceptor 
                manufacturers, vending machine owners and operators, 
                transit officials, municipal parking officials, 
                depository institutions, coin and currency handlers, 
                armored-car operators, car wash operators, and 
                American-owned manufacturers of commercial coin 
                processing equipment, considers to be appropriate and 
                in the public interest, in accordance with subchapter 
                II of chapter 5 of title 5, United States Code.
            ``(3) Comment and selection process.--In making any 
        determination with respect to any change in the weight and 
        composition of any coin, the Secretary shall enter into a 
        formal rulemaking process.''.
    (b) Technical and Conforming Amendments.--
            (1) Section 5112(a) of title 31, United States Code, is 
        amended--
                    (A) in paragraph (2), by striking ``and weighs 
                11.34 grams'';
                    (B) in paragraph (3), by striking ``and weighs 5.67 
                grams'';
                    (C) in paragraph (4), by striking ``and weighs 
                2.268 grams'';
                    (D) in paragraph (5), by striking ``and weighs 5 
                grams''; and
                    (E) by striking paragraph (6) and inserting the 
                following new paragraph:
            ``(6) A 1-cent coin that is 0.75 inch in diameter.''.
            (2) Section 5112(b) of title 31, United States Code, is 
        amended to read as follows:
    ``(b) Specifications for $1 Coins and Gold Coins.--The $1 coin 
shall be golden in color, have a distinctive edge, have tactile and 
visual features that make the denomination of the coin readily 
discernible, be coined, be minted and material fabricated in the United 
States, and have similar metallic, anti-counterfeiting properties as 
United States coinage in circulation on the date of enactment of the 
United States $1 Coin Act of 1997. In minting gold coins, the Secretary 
shall use alloys that vary not more than 0.1 percent from the percent 
of gold required. The specifications for alloys are by weight.''.
            (3) Section 5113(a) of title 31, United States Code, is 
        amended--
                    (A) in the 1st sentence, by striking ``and dime 
                coins'' and inserting ``dime, 5-cent, and 1-cent 
                coins.''; and
                    (B) by striking the second and third sentences.
    (c) Effective Dates.--
            (1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), the 
        amendments made by this section as it pertains to each 
        individual coin, other than subsection (b)(1)(E), shall take 
        effect at the end of the fiscal year which is the 5th of 5 
        sequential fiscal years in each of which the net cost of 
        producing such circulating coins under section 5112 of title 
        31, United States Code, other than the 1-cent coin, has 
        exceeded the total face value of such coin.
            (2) 1-cent coin.--The amendments made by this section, to 
        the extent such amendments relate to the 1-cent coin, shall 
        take effect as of the date of the enactment of this Act, 
        subject to the amendment made by section 4.

SEC. 4. IMMEDIATE REDUCTION IN THE COST OF PRODUCING PENNIES THROUGH 
              THE USE OF STEEL PENNIES.

    Subsection (c) of section 5112 of title 31, United States Code, (as 
amended by section 3(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following 
by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(4) Interim steel 1-cent coin.--
                    ``(A) In general.--During the period beginning 180 
                days after the date of the enactment of the Coin 
                Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2008 and 
                ending on the effective date of any subsequent change 
                by the Secretary of the composition of the 1-cent coin 
                under paragraph (1), the 1-cent coin shall--
                            ``(i) be produced primarily of steel; and
                            ``(ii) meet such other specifications as 
                        the Secretary may determine to be appropriate, 
                        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 appearance of the coins 
                so that the appearance is similar to 1-cent coins 
                produced of a copper-zinc alloy.
                    ``(C) Exception for lincoln bicentennial numismatic 
                pennies.--No provision of this paragraph shall apply 
                with respect to 1-cent coins described in section 304 
                of the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 that are issued 
                for numismatic purposes.''.
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