From the very beginning it is worth mentioning that the Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2008 is a document that would change the combination of metals in pennies and nickels to steel. The main advantage of the Act is the saving of costs for producing the coins. It's quite interesting to observe the figures that illustrate the expenses of coin production. After analyzing the latest trends it's obvious that today metals used in coin production show instability. This includes such metals as: copper, zinc and nickel.

In order to mint penny and nickel coins today, the mint spends 1.26 cents for each penny and 7.7 cents for a nickel coin. It's interesting to note that the United States Mint recently offered the costs for minting a dime[⁹⁶⁴], quarter[¹¹²³] and one dollar coins[⁹⁶⁸]. Thus:

· 1 dime costs 4 cents

· 1 quarter costs 10 cents

· $1 costs 16 cents.

With the continuous fluctuation of metals in 2008, the final figures this year will undoubtedly suffer changes. Still the costs of producing coins last year registered much worse results after copper, zinc and nickel reached their peak value.

The following fiscal costs in striking penny and nickel were presented to the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade and Technology by the United States Mint Director Ed Moy on March 11, 2008:

• Penny costs 1.67 cents
• Nickel costs 9.53 cents

When subtracting last year's figures from the ones registered this year, we will get stunning results. The table below represents the production figures for penny and nickel and the costs of minting them.

The first two columns include data from 2007 provided by the United States Mint. The results of the last two columns are obtained by using today's costs for producing penny and nickel coins instead of production costs from 2007.

The data from the 2007 Mint Cost Totals* column has been provided by U.S. Mint Director Moy as evidence to the House for 2007 production costs (a penny costs 1.67 cents and a nickel costs 9.53 cents). Data from the Current Mint Costs Used** column has been recently offered by the U.S. Mint for 2008 production costs (a penny costs 1.26 cents and a nickel costs 7.7 cents)

Whether the 2008 Act becomes law or not, the table focuses on variations in prices for the metals used in coin production that can a serious impact on costs for minting coins. In future, even after the Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act of 2008 becomes law, the prices for steel may suffer similar instability.