Coins and Metal Prices ... The Story Continues

Link to Globe and Mail Story : Soaring metals prices mean making money costs U.S. a mint (Thursday, August 16, 2007)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070816.IBPENNY16/TPStory/

"Because of a surge in the price of copper, the U.S. Mint decided 25 years ago to manufacture the coins almost entirely with zinc, save for the coating on which Abraham Lincoln's profile is engraved.
Now, the fate of the penny is up in the air once again. With the price of zinc soaring amid a worldwide commodities boom, it costs the government almost 2 cents to make each 1-cent coin - a pretty penny considering roughly eight billion new ones are placed into circulation annually.
While it is unlikely the penny will be pulled from circulation, there are some lawmakers who would like to ditch zinc as a raw material and instead use steel or some other less expensive metal."

...

"Francois Velde, a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, said the federal government should rid the U.S. currency of pennies, or at the very least find a cheaper way to make them.
Mr. Velde noted that equivalent coins in Canada, Britain and Europe are made from steel, which is roughly five times less expensive than zinc.
Mr. Weller said Jarden, which produces coin blanks for more than two dozen countries, is "agnostic" about the penny's metal content.
"Should Congress or the Mint suggest a different metal composition, like copper-plated steel or copper-plated aluminum, I'm sure Jarden would be interested in talking to the Mint about their capabilities," he said."