While Canada expects to save $11 million annually when it abolishes its 1-cent coin by autumn, the United States for the moment is looking at the top end of its circulating denominational scale to find its cost savings.
In December production of the Presidential dollar coin for circulation was ordered suspended.
At a March 28 hearing before the House Financial Services Subcommittee Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said, “Taking this simple step will save taxpayers $50 million per year in production and storage costs.”
He also noted a further annual savings of $75 million through “improved manufacturing practices and administrative cost reductions.”
Additional unspecified savings would result if legislation requested in the proposed Fiscal Year 2013 budget would be passed to authorize the Treasury Secretary “to change the composition of coins to utilize more cost-effective materials.”
As justification he noted that it costs the government “more than twice the face value of each of those coins” to produce them.
However, such a request has been made before and Congress has not ceded its authority to determine the composition of U.S. coins to the Treasury.
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