Congress passed legislation late Monday formally ending U.S. production of the penny, sending the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk more than a year after the Treasury Department had already stopped minting the coin.
The bill, called the Common Cents Act, passed the Senate by voice vote and directs the government not to produce pennies going forward, giving legal backing to a decision the Trump administration made to halt production in 2025. Existing pennies would remain legal tender indefinitely. Trump is expected to sign the bill; he wrote on Truth Social last year that the U.S. had produced the coin for far too long, saying the country should cut waste from its budget even if it meant doing so a penny at a time.
Reports differed slightly on how long the U.S. had produced the coin, with one account describing the bill as ending 234 years of penny production and another describing the Mint’s actual production run, which ended in November 2025, as spanning 232 years since the Mint’s founding in 1792. That discrepancy had not been resolved as of the latest reporting.
What We Know So Far
The bipartisan bill was sponsored by Reps. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., and Robert Garcia, D-Calif. It builds on earlier legislation McClain had sponsored to end penny production, expanding it to include provisions for how cash transactions should be handled as pennies phase out of circulation. Producing a single penny cost the Mint nearly 3.7 cents in 2024, according to its most recent annual report, more than three times the coin’s face value. The Treasury projected the halt would generate about $56 million in immediate annual savings from reduced material costs.
The bill establishes a framework allowing retailers to round cash transactions to the nearest nickel when exact change is unavailable. Cash wage payments would be treated separately: if an employer rounds a cash payment not divisible by 5 cents, the amount must be rounded up rather than down. Retailer groups had pushed for these provisions, saying dwindling penny circulation had left businesses uncertain how to handle cash transactions and exposed to potential legal disputes. A coalition of retailer groups wrote to House leaders earlier this year describing cascading impacts on businesses operating under constant uncertainty over handling cash transactions without exact change.
The legislation also authorizes the Treasury to adopt a lower cost composition for the nickel, subject to testing for cost savings and compatibility with coin operated machines; the current 5-cent coin is made from a combination of nickel and copper, materials more expensive than zinc. Separately, the bill requires the Federal Reserve Board to report on penny distribution and coin terminal operations, incorporating a Treasury assessment of how the phase out affects low income communities, older consumers, and people who are unbanked or underbanked.
Estimates of how many pennies remain in circulation varied significantly. The Treasury had previously estimated roughly 114 billion pennies remained in circulation, while the Mint later put the figure at about 300 billion, a substantial discrepancy that had not been reconciled as of the latest reporting. The Mint issued 3.2 billion pennies in 2024, the last full year of production, more than double the number of the next most minted coin, the quarter.
What Authorities Are Saying
Garcia said stopping production of a coin that costs nearly four times its face value to make is common sense when it comes to eliminating government waste and spending tax dollars wisely.
Why This Matters
The penny’s phase out reflects a broader shift away from cash transactions as digital payments have become increasingly standard, reducing the practical need for the lowest denomination coin even as it remained legal tender. The bill’s rounding provisions and cash wage payment rules represent a rare instance of Congress proactively building out a transition framework for a currency change, rather than simply halting production and leaving retailers and consumers to navigate the practical consequences on their own.
The significant discrepancy between the Treasury’s and the Mint’s circulation estimates, 114 billion versus roughly 300 billion pennies, underscores how difficult it can be to track a currency denomination that, as officials have noted, is frequently issued as change but rarely recirculated back into the economy, requiring continuous new production to replace pennies that effectively disappear from active circulation.
The requirement for a Federal Reserve report on effects on low income, older and unbanked or underbanked populations reflects an acknowledgment that cash dependent communities may be disproportionately affected by the transition, even as the overall shift toward digital payments has made the penny increasingly marginal for most consumers.
What Happens Next
Trump is expected to sign the bill, which would codify the end of circulating penny production in federal law once enacted. For most consumers, the practical change will primarily affect cash purchases, where rounding to the nearest nickel will become standard as pennies gradually disappear from circulation.
The Treasury’s planned research into a lower cost nickel composition is expected to proceed under the new law, potentially altering the material makeup of the coin that is likely to see increased use as the penny phases out. Further details on implementation timelines for the rounding and reporting provisions are expected once the bill is signed into law.
Reporting drawn from the Associated Press and Fox News
