The Big Bucks Backing Small Change

Last week, Canada announced that it will get rid of the penny in an effort to save some cash. The Canadian penny costs more to produce than it's worth, and the same is true here: the U.S. Mint estimates that making a penny actually costs 2.4 cents.

So who's working to keep the U.S. penny in circulation? According to the Center's research, at least one company with a big vested interest would like to keep the penny around: Jarden Zinc spent $140,000 retaining lobbyist Mark Weller to talk to Congress and the Mint about "issues related to the one-cent coin, and penny re-design."

That's 14 million pennies seemingly well-spent for Jarden, because last year alone the company received $48 million in federal contracts to provide zinc and to sort old, unusable one-cent pieces. » Read More