House Votes to Push Penny Toward History With New Cash-Rounding Rules
By Andrew Powell (/journals/andrew-powell)
The penny’s days as a regularly produced U.S. coin could be coming to an end for good after the House of Representatives approved legislation aimed at ending its production and establishing new rules for cash transactions. The bipartisan Common Cents Act passed unanimously on Monday, according to Fox News. The measure would prohibit the Treasury Department from producing additional pennies, except for coins made for collectors, while creating a system for rounding cash purchases to the nearest five cents. The legislation would not eliminate existing pennies from Americans’ wallets. Pennies already in circulation would remain legal tender and could continue to be used for purchases. Under the proposal, cash transactions that do not end in a multiple of five cents would be rounded either up or down. There would be a special provision for cash wages, requiring those payments to be rounded upward when the total cannot be evenly divided by five cents. The U.S. Mint stopped producing pennies in November 2025 after more than two centuries of circulation. Treasury officials have said the move was driven in part by the rising cost of producing the coin. Treasury reported that producing a penny had cost 3.69 cents per coin over the previous 10 years, compared with its 1-cent face value, and estimated that ending production would provide an immediate annual savings of $56 million in material costs. The legislation was led by House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif. The pair originally introduced the Common Cents Act in April 2025, with the bill calling for both an end to penny production and cash rounding. The new measure also addresses the nickel, allowing the U.S. Mint to use less expensive materials in producing the five-cent coin. Congress would also require the Treasury Department to study how the penny phaseout affects groups including low-income Americans, older consumers and people who have been denied access to traditional banking services. The Treasury has said cash transactions can be rounded as pennies become less available, while electronic payments, checks and other non-cash transactions can continue to be processed to the exact cent. Existing pennies are expected to remain legal tender indefinitely.