Bipartisan legislation entitled “The Common Cents Act” has been introduced in the current 119th U.S. Congress (2025-2026) to direct the Treasury to stop minting pennies and establish rules for rounding cash transactions. The bill is H.R. 3074 in the House and S. 1525 in the Senate. Both are moving through the process. But Utah and New York are not waiting for the federal government to act. They have introduced their own price-rounding guidance and legislation to address the penny shortage.
These are the key provisions of the Common Cents Act:
- Cease Penny Production: Direct the U.S. Mint to stop producing pennies for general circulation one year after the bill’s enactment (with exceptions for numismatic/collector purposes).
- Implement Rounding: Require a symmetrical rounding system for cash transactions only.
- Amounts ending in .01, .02, .06, and.07 would be rounded down to the nearest 5 cents.
- Amounts ending in .03, .04, .08, and .09 cents would be rounded up to the nearest 5 cents.
- Maintain Legal Tender Status: All existing pennies would remain legal tender indefinitely.
- Exempt Non-Cash Transactions: Payments made by credit card, debit card, check, or electronic transfer would not be subject to rounding.
The rationale for the legislation is fiscal responsibility, as it has cost more than one cent to produce a penny for many years (approximately 3.7 cents per penny in 2024), resulting in significant taxpayer losses. The U.S. Treasury has already halted penny production at the direction of President Trump, creating an urgent need for a standardized national rounding policy.
13 Responses
I’ve stopped donating to the Republican Party. They can’t seem to grasp that everything they do and say is nullified because republicans don’t vote. I don’t know if it is because they are too busy, too lazy, or just don’t care, but they don’t go to the polls and vote. With the exception of the last presidential election, they don’t vote. We are losing to communists! We are losing to Socialists!
Everything republicans do should be targeting people to get out and vote. DONE
Why don’t we go with the standard 0 to 4 cents, round down. 5 to 9 cents round up. That’s common sense. Pun intended! Lol
when are they change the nickel it is 75% copper and 25% nickel costing around 15 cents to produce, some countrys have changed there nickel to 75% steel and 25% nickel so if the US government wants to save money they need to change the nickel.
Removing the penny from production was a ridicules move if one cent increments are still used in product pricing.
Rounding.01 and .02 down and .03 and .04 up will just induce retailers to use the higher numbers as to reduce them rounding down.
As to the cost of production that one penny even though it’s cost may have been 4 cents, over its lifetime will be used to transact probably tens or hundreds of dollars worth of transactions.
That’s not bad for a 4 cent investment by our government.
The real reason for this move is to make us pull even farther away from the use of cash.
The more it’s inconvenient for us the less we want to use it.
The government wants us all to use digital technology as to track and eventually control our very lives.
So true…..and track our purchases as well. Only retailers will benefit from all this paying attention to everything except the really important stuff, like….the illegal taxes Governor “Nuisance” is throwing at us Californians…and the violent illegal aliens still in the Country even though Holman is doing everything he can to get them out. If you protest what Americans voted for, perhaps those folks should consider moving to the country of their choice. They can live with their Communist beliefs all they want and leave Americans alone.
I certainly hope, with all of these Congressional Retirements upcoming, that special attention is given to ALL voting machines and ballots. There’s been so much proven fraud in the voting system. This needs to be confronted and corrected, Immediately not After the elections.
I certainly hope, with all of the Congressional Retirements upcoming, that special attention will be given to ALL Voting Machines & Ballots.
There’s has been so much proven fraud in the Voting System. This Must be confronted and corrected immediately, not just After the Elections.
MAKE A CHEAPER PENNY!
I believe Elon Musk could develop a new cheaper to produce penny if he was asked and encouraged to do so.
True or not, I’ve heard that President Trump wants an exemption made and his image be on the dollar coin celebrating The United States of America’s 250th birthday.
If Elon Musk would develop a new more cheaply produced penny coin, could we not make an exemption for him and put his image on the one cent coin? Abe Lincoln is on the penny AND the one dollar bill, so eliminate Lincoln and replace/honor Musk on the new penny. Lincoln would still be honored on the one dollar bill.
Making a new cheaper penny cannot be too difficult and impossible in America. MAGA!
Lincoln is on the $5 bill…
Buy pennies from ebay & spend them. Ebay sells rolls of pennies & loose coins. This will get coins back in circulation.
I agree with doing away with pennies and rounding. But why not round the way we all learned in school? Round .01 through .04 down to the nearest 5 cent and, round .06 through .09 up. Why skip around the numbers?
that sounds like more expense to implement and years/decades to recoup the “padded” cost. someone hoarding pennies for decades has nothing better to do than scam the public for their own financial gain. this type of BS has to be exposed for the “greenmail” it is and stopped. a gross waste of waste of time. go sell crazy somewhere else. we’re full-up here.
So, this bill will not go into effect for ONE YEAR FROM DATE, then, why are some stores already doing the rounding thing ???. This needs to be addressed.