American coins to be made out of cheaper materials

Coins in the U.S. are now going to be made out of “cost-effective materials”, said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Wednesday.

“Currently, the costs of making the penny and the nickel are more than twice the face value of each of those coins,” announced Geithner in written testimony before the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee.

Geithner outlined cost-reduction strategies at his department. Treasury plans to change the composition of coins and use materials that cost less. What the materials will be was not announced.

Steps to push Americans towards a dollar coin instead of the greenback were further scaled back.

“Last December, we announced that we were suspending the production of Presidential dollar coins for circulation. At that time, there were 1.4 billion surplus dollar coins sitting unused in Federal Reserve vaults. These surplus coins will now be drawn down over time. Taking this simple step will save taxpayers $50 million per year in production and storage costs,” said Geithner.