Sponsors (2)
The bill seeks to streamline coinage and cash handling—speeding checkouts, protecting merchants, and reducing minting complexity—while requiring planning and oversight, but it shifts small costs and legal risks onto cash-reliant consumers, businesses adapting equipment, and agencies managing the transition.
Cash-paying Americans (especially those relying on in-person transactions) will generally get faster, simpler checkouts because totals can be rounded to the nearest nickel and merchants have a clear rounding method.
Taxpayers and the Treasury could save on minting and production costs if the Mint stops general-circulation penny production and/or adopts a less-expensive plated zinc/nickel 5-cent composition.
The bill requires planning, reporting, and targeted policy recommendations (including state/local input) to reduce disruptions and protect communities that depend on small-change transactions.
Cash-reliant consumers (especially low-income people, seniors, and frequent cash users) risk losing small amounts from rounding (or from employers' cash-wage rounding), which can accumulate over time.
Businesses and device operators may incur costs to retool or recalibrate vending machines, coin-operated devices, POS systems, and to comply with new rounding and coin-composition rules.
The bill's safe-harbor for merchants following the statutory rounding method could limit consumers' legal recourse and create uneven consumer protections across States and localities.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Ends penny production for circulation, authorizes a redesigned zinc-core nickel, allows voluntary cash rounding to the nearest nickel, provides liability protection, and directs Fed/Treasury reports.
Ends production of one-cent coins for general circulation, authorizes new specifications and a low-cost zinc-core nickel, and lets people and businesses voluntarily round cash transactions to the nearest five cents. It also shields participants who follow the rounding rules from liability, requires the Federal Reserve to publish a multi-stage plan and reports on coin handling and penny supply impacts, and preserves pennies already in circulation as legal tender.
Official title: Common Cents Act
Introduced April 29, 2025 by Lisa C. McClain · Last progress July 15, 2026