The House of Representatives has endorsed a steel penny, as well as a nickel made mostly of steel, to save $1 billion over a decade. Production costs currently exceed the face value for both the penny, made of zinc and copper,…

Our beleaguered one-cent piece is finally getting some attention in Congress, the Chicago Tribune reports. A House subcommittee held a hearing Tuesday on the Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act, which would let the Treasury secretary change the composition of any…

In a radio interview, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson echoed a position I stated several months ago: The penny serves no useful purpose in today’s economy.

But Paulson isn’t planning to do anything about it. According to an Associated Press story:

However,…

Sometimes, my  readers come up with much better lines than I do. In my column about the unnecessary penny, I mentioned the government’s ban on melting or exporting the copper coins. An anonymous  reader saw the humor in this and emailed…