ICYMI: CNBC: New Bipartisan Bill Would Let the U.S. Mint Alter the Metal Content of Coins to Save Money

WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, CNBC reported on U.S. Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Joni Ernst’s (R-IA) bipartisan bill to save millions of dollars by altering the metal content of coins.

See below for coverage highlights from CNBC.

CNBC: New bipartisan bill would let the U.S. Mint alter the metal content of coins to save money

By Christina Wilkie

A bipartisan bill to authorize the U.S. Mint to alter the metal content of coins in order to save taxpayers money will be reintroduced on Thursday, the two senators sponsoring the bill told CNBC exclusively.

The bill’s reintroduction comes just days after a new report from the U.S. Mint revealed that in 2022, soaring costs for raw metals drove the price of minting a single nickel past 10 cents, or more than double the value of the coin itself.

GOP Sen. Joni Ernst, of Iowa, and Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, of New Hampshire, say their legislation is designed to cut the rising expense of minting America’s quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.

“It’s absolute non-cents that American taxpayers spend ten cents to make just one nickel,” Ernst said in an email to CNBC. “Only Washington could lose money making money.”

[…]“This bill will save millions of dollars per year by modifying the composition of nickels, dimes, and quarters with less expensive metals,” Hassan wrote in an email to CNBC. “I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support our bipartisan bill.”

As party leaders in the House and the Senate work to line up legislation that can pass with bipartisan support as part of an eventual debt ceiling and budget package later this year, proposals like the one from Ernst and Hassan may gain more momentum than usual.

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