CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTS COINAGE METALS

DAVID L. GANZ, a Democrat and the elected freeholder of Bergen County in northeastern New Jersey, says that climate change isn’t just dishing out more natural disasters, it’s also a ecting the very metals used to make coins. “Climate change can a ect the lead that’s used in the metal to cast dies in making copper-nickel coins,” he explains. “Even when it comes to the change in degrees of temperature that go up into a much higher range, that has an e ect on storage and on safety deposit boxes.” He says the single most important factor that needs to be considered is what happens when mixing chemicals and metals, as has been done for years. “It’s a major problem when those same formulas no longer work, and it’s a problem right now,” he says. As long-used chemical mixtures are a ected by greater heat and humidity in places such as Philadelphia, where the United States Mint conducts the bulk of its coining operations, there could be major issues in creating and using die equipment or minting coins of certain alloys now and even more so in the future. “I was at the Philadelphia Mint the day the new mint opened in 1969; that’s now 50 years ago,” he recalls. “When they opened the Philadelphia Mint, it was supposed to be the most successful mint in history, utilizing highly e cient coin dies, coin roller machines, and other equipment to make billions of coins.” So what happens if the old ways that have worked so well for so long in making coins at the U.S. Mint are now upended by climate change?