  We consider the contribution of superconducting fluctuations to the
mesoscopic persistent current (PC) of an ensemble of normal metallic rings,
made of a superconducting material whose low bare transition temperature
$T^{0}_{c}$ is much smaller than the Thouless energy $E_{c}$. The effect of
pair breaking is introduced via the example of magnetic impurities. We find
that over a rather broad range of pair-breaking strength $\hbar/\tau_{s}$, such
that $T_c^0 \lesssim \hbar/\tau_s \lesssim E_c$, the superconducting transition
temperature is normalized down to minute values or zero while the PC is hardly
affected. This may provide an explanation for the magnitude of the average PC's
in copper and gold, as well as a way to determine their $T^0_c$'s. The
dependence of the current and the dominant superconducting fluctuations on
$E_c\tau_s$ and on the ratio between $E_c$ and the temperature is analyzed. The
measured PC's in copper (gold) correspond to $T^0_c$ of a few (a fraction of)
mK.
