A debate exists within the United States government and American society at large over whether the one-cent coin, the penny, should be eliminated as a unit of currency in the United States. The penny costs more to produce than the one cent it is worth, meaning the seigniorage is negativethe government loses money on every penny that is created. Several bills introduced in the U.S. Congress would have ceased production of pennies, but none have been approved. Such bills would leave the five-cent coin, or nickel, as the lowest-value coin minted in the United States. Other countries have also withdrawn coins no longer worth producing, such as Canada ending production of the Canadian penny in 2012. The most recent time that the United States withdrew the lowest-value coin from circulation was with the half-cent coin (hay-penny), which was withdrawn in 1857; the 1857 half-cent coin was worth approximately cents in dollars. Legislation In 1990, United States Representative Jim Kolbe [R-AZ] introduced the Price Rounding Act of 1989, H.R. 3761, to eliminate the penny in cash transactions, rounding to the nearest nickel. In 2001, Kolbe introduced the Legal Tender Modernization Act of 2001, H.R. 2528, and in 2006, he introduced the Currency Overhaul for an Industrious Nation (C.O.I.N.) Act, H.R. 5818. While the bills received much popular support from the public, all failed to become law. In 2017, Senator John McCain [R-AZ] and Senator Mike Enzi [R-WY] introduced S. 759, the Currency Optimization, Innovation, and National Savings (C.O.I.N.S.) Act of 2017, that would stop minting of the penny for 10 years and would study the question of whether production could cease thereafter. The bill died at the end of the 115th Congress with no hearings held by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Arguments for elimination Production at a loss In 2020, it cost 1.76 cents to mint a penny. This results in an annual loss to the U.S. government of approximately (). Also, the price of the raw materials from which the penny is made exceeds the face value, so there is a risk that coins will be illegally melted down for raw materials. Lost productivity and opportunity cost of use With the median wage in the US being per hour in 2020, it takes less than two seconds to earn one cent. Thus, it is not worthwhile for most people to deal with a penny. If