Official Congressional Record
Mr. President, the penny has been a staple of American life since Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1792, which mandated that the penny be valued at one hundredth part of a dollar. The following year, in 1793, the U.S. Mint produced 11,178 copper pennies. Billions of pennies later, the penny has been made of zinc, steel, nickel, tin and bronze throughout more than two centuries of history and has featured on its face Lady Liberty, a Flying Eagle, an Indian Head, and, most notably, President Abraham Lincoln since 1909. Since the early 2010s, the penny has cost the U.S. Mint more to produce than its 1 cent face value. Today, it costs taxpayers nearly 4 cents per penny to produce, costing the Federal Government an estimated $56 million annually. As Americans rely heavily on electronic payments, including digital assets, to send and receive value, the penny has become an outdated and inefficient part of our currency. One of my core missions serving on the Banking Committee has been to ensure how Americans transfer value in our payment and currency system is modern, relevant, and efficient, whether it is through stablecoins, Federal Reserve master accounts, or our old friend the penny. I am proud to be leading the Common Cents Act in the Senate, which will bring the penny’s role in our economy to an end once signed into law by President Trump. I am joined by my friends Senators Gillibrand, Lankford, and Wyden as cosponsors of this legislation. The Common Cents Act ratifies the Treasury Department’s decision in 2025 to permanently discontinue production of the penny. My legislation also provides crucial legal certainty for business by creating a clear national standard authorizing businesses to round to the nearest 5 cents, while specifying that electronic payments are not required to be rounded. My legislation also authorizes the U.S. Mint to test and, if appropriate, implement a new lower-cost composition for the nickel, which could also save taxpayers money. I want to be clear about the intent of that provision. The intent of this provision is to allow the Treasury and Mint to change the composition of the 5-cent coin from its current nickel-copper alloy to a zinc-nickel alloy. Not only should the Treasury and Mint evaluate the direct cost of production of the 5-cent coin when determining its composition, but it also should evaluate the cost and recyclability across the Treasury’s and Mint’s integrated coin-alloy and scrap- recycling system, as well as the availability of qualified suppliers and the overall resilience of the supply chain. The current copper and nickel 5-cent coin, dime, and quarter production streams are operationally and economically interconnected. The current composition of the 5-cent coin uses a closed-loop recycling model, and the nickel-copper alloy used in the 5-cent coin is compatible with the materials also used in dimes and quarters. This allows the 5-cent coin scrap to be recycled and reused into dime and quarter feedstock. The goal of the Common Cents Act is to save taxpayers money. Therefore, the Treasury and Mint should look at the impact and cost of changing the composition of the 5-cent coin, including the cost of production of the 5-cent coin and other coins, recyclability, availability of suppliers, and supply chain. Discontinuing coinage like the penny is not new. Production of the half-cent coin was discontinued in the Coinage Act of 1857, and today, the Common Cents Act is another step our country will take to modernize how Americans transfer value. The late Senator Mike Enzi, my predecessor from Wyoming in the Senate, began advocating for the abolition of the penny in 2017, when he introduced the Coins Act. I am proud to complete the work he began today with the Common Cents Act.
