State Senator Johnny DuPree sought to have Mississippi get ahead of the confusion by implementing rounding guidance for cash purchases. The bill died in committee.
The U.S. Mint ceased production of pennies in November 2025 after President Donald Trump (R) issued an executive order to end production of the one cent coin. Trump called continuing to mint the coin “wasteful” as it was costing more than double its value to produce.
Since then, nearly two dozen states across the U.S. have seen measures filed to provide guidance to businesses and customers on how cash transactions should be handled as the penny is phased out.
Signs across the Magnolia State can be seen in retail stores notifying cash customers that they will be rounding to the nearest increment of five cents even as critics have questioned the rounding by retailers. Some say it equates to higher prices, even if by a few cents. Retailers, however, say they are left with little direction otherwise given the shortage of pennies.
Newly minted State Senator Johnny DuPree (D) sought to have Mississippi get ahead of the confusion by implementing rounding guidance for cash purchases. In his first session in the Mississippi Legislature, he introduced SB 2680, but it died in the Senate Business and Financial Institutions Committee, leaving Mississippi retailers and customers to their own devices.
According to the Associated Press, a bill was introduced last year in Congress that would apply symmetrical rounding across the country. Congresswoman Lisa McClain (R) of Michigan told the AP that the federal law is important to prevent a “confusing patchwork of state policies.” To date, her bill has not been voted on in the House despite having passed out of committee.
For now, states are left to provide their own guidance, and more than a few are not waiting on Congress to act.
The AP reports that bills to deal with penniless cash transactions have passed both chambers and await the governor’s signature in Arizona, Florida, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington. In Indiana, the AP notes that a bill signed into law this month by Governor Mike Braun (R) tells businesses they must round cash purchases for all transactions that do not end in a zero or five. However, lawmakers revised that provision in a second bill that makes rounding optional, which would take effect Sunday if Braun signs it into law.
The U.S. Treasury has said that it will continue circulating the 114 billion that exist for “as long as possible,” but many retailers have reported “penny shortages.”
As previously reported, by ending the production of the penny, the U.S. Mint projects that in the 2026 fiscal year it would save $66 million as well as allow for “identifying process improvements and cost reductions across other spending categories” such as telecommunications, contract services, and printing, among others.
Ceasing penny production is not a new idea. It has long been bantered about in Washington D.C. Former President Barrack Obama even noted the waste from producing the coin during his time in the White House. Other countries such as Canada, Australia, and Sweden have also stopped minting the coins.
-- Article credit to Frank Corder for the Magnolia Tribune --
