US could get a new nickel under bill passed by the House

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(NEXSTAR) – In addition to a bill that could lock the clocks in the U.S., the House this week passed legislation that could change how our change looks.

The “Common Cents Act” addresses three main aspects of U.S. currency. It formally ends the production of the penny, which the U.S. has already stopped minting, and addresses how retailers should give you change when they don’t have any pennies in the till.

But it also shifts focus to the nation’s second-lowest denomination: the nickel.

Without the penny, the nickel has presumably gained some value, at least to retailers and customers paying with cash. Many companies are already rounding the change you receive in a cash transaction to the nearest nickel. (You can’t get $1.15 back without a five-cent coin, for example.)

That doesn’t mean the nickel is without its flaws. One expert even argues it would have been easier for the U.S. to ditch its nickel than the penny. (Only pennies can be used to give you $1.27 in change, for example.)

The nickel, like the penny, is expensive to produce. It cost 13.31 cents to produce a single nickel in fiscal year 2025, down slightly from 13.78 cents in fiscal year 2024. Last year marked 20 consecutive years that nickel production costs remained above the coin’s face value.

Under the Common Cents Act, the Treasury would be allowed to “test a redesigned, lower-cost nickel that must ensure it saves money while continuing to work in vending machines,” a press release from Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) explains.

Nickels contain hardly any nickel at all. According to the U.S. Mint, a five-cent piece is only 25% nickel, with the rest made of copper. The high cost of copper was blamed in part for the increased cost of producing a penny, which is just 2.5% copper.

The bill’s text describes a “composition of zinc and nickel” for the coin. Only the penny and the $1 coin currently use zinc, which was nearly $7,000 per tonne cheaper than copper last year, the Mint reports.

Last year, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said efforts were underway to determine how to lower the cost of nickel production. Mark Weller, executive director of the pro-penny group Americans for Common Cents, told CNN in November that changes could be made to bring the cost of nickel production closer to 5 cents.

Changing a coin’s composition can be difficult, though. Attempts to make the penny cheaper, for example, failed. The cheapest metal available for them is steel, but it would still cost more than a penny to use it in a single coin. Plastics and polymers wouldn’t work either, since counting machines are looking for metal.

For now, nickels will continue to look how they’ve looked for years. They also remain legal tender, as do pennies. A bill that would end the production of both remains in committee in the House.

The Common Cents Act, meanwhile, still needs to pass through the Senate and be signed into law before it can take effect. Its future in the next chamber is unclear.

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Robert Garcia

Scott Bessent

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