CoinWorld had an interesting article about this. It seem that the Canadian Goverment has been systematically withdrawing large numbers of the older clad coins and melting them for the metal content. They have even made a special deal with CoinStar to retrieve the older coins. SO all of those common circulating Canadian coins will most likely fall into short supply within the next few years.

I wonder if the US is not doing the same thing?

why would they do that?

It's already coins. Melting them, making planchets, striking them will result in again coins with similar value. the production cost is pure loss this way....

It's not that people refuse to use older coins because they're older.

Keep in mind that you can then create a demand for coins, then put commems out in the market, which will eventually be saved from circulation by the general public, allowing more coins to be stuck, and thus more revenue.

Besides, the nickel and copper-nickel 5c already are worth more than face in melt, and it doesn't cost half that to make a new steel one.

BTW, vending machines in some places do not accept the current steel coins, so as the nickel pieces dissapear from circulation, that may cause problems.

Sorry, I didn't make that part clear. I wondered the same thing when I started the article. The RCM is melting the Copper, copper-nickel, silver, etc. and selling the resultant metals to metal brokers not reusing it for coins. The replacement coins are as ccg mentioned steel. It wasn't clear what they were doing with the silver and such -- perhaps that is being reused.