Bill would let the U.S. Mint alter the metal content of coins to save money
That’s kinda funny because they are already altering it. Drop a 2023 quarter on a table and you can hear the crap metal.
Again?
This is going to have the rest of the coinage be made out of unstable metals like aluminum and zinc. Pennies went to hell in 1982 (that year is 1/2 and 1/2). Post 1982 pennies rot away in the ground in a few years and some even in circulation. I have found copper/bronze coins in the ground in near perfect shape. Silver I find is often as the day it was dropped. Gold of course is near timeless in ground. Gold from thousands of years ago looks perfect often (aside from wear or mechanical damage).
This is just another way to debase coin, a chemical negative interest rate. Not to forget the fact that some of the unstable metals exhibit defined toxicity at elevated levels and can blow out the costs of soil management for stuff like landscaping and park projects.
People talk about changing or eliminating the penny and nickel. The hell with that, they are the two coins who currently carry their melt/reuse value in their content! THAT’S MONEY.
A pound of copper pennies runs between 147-153 (wear variation). Call it 150. Copper today $3.83, so they are worth $0.03 apiece