Sponsors (4)
The bill reduces government minting and small-coin handling costs and speeds cash transactions while trading off small but widespread rounding losses for cash users, payroll/accounting complications, and modest compliance and numismatic-market impacts.
Consumers and retailers (broad public and small businesses) will get simpler, faster cash checkouts and reduced small-coin handling because totals can be rounded and demand for pennies falls.
Taxpayers may save money over time because the Treasury would stop producing low-value pennies, reducing minting and handling costs paid from public funds.
People who already own or use pennies (e.g., seniors, those using cash) will not have their existing pennies demonetized because pennies retain legal-tender status, avoiding contract or transaction disruption.
Cash-paying consumers—especially low-income people who use cash frequently—may lose small amounts over time because rounding can push many transactions upward, effectively increasing prices for those customers.
Employees paid in cash and the small employers who pay them could face wage-accounting and payroll complications because rounding rules can change net amounts paid and require careful tracking to remain compliant.
Small businesses must update point-of-sale systems and payroll procedures before the effective date, creating one-time compliance and implementation costs.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Ends circulation minting of the penny (except collector coins priced to cover costs) and requires cash transactions and cash wages to be rounded to the nearest 5 cents.
Stops production of circulating one-cent coins within a year of enactment (except for collector coins sold at prices that cover production costs) and preserves the penny as legal tender. Requires that cash retail sales and cash wage payments be rounded to the nearest five cents (with precise rounding rules and limited exemptions); non-cash payments are not affected. The cash-rounding rule becomes effective one year after enactment.
Official title: Direct the Secretary of the Treasury to stop minting the penny, to require cash transactions to be rounded up or down to the nearest 5 cents, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 30, 2025 by Cynthia M. Lummis · Last progress August 7, 2026