Starting in 2026, pennies will no longer be in production. President Donald Trump put this into effect, ordering the Department of Treasury back in February to stop minting pennies (producing them). Trump claims that the production of pennies costs more than they are worth. This has effectively started some stores to have coin shortages.
With this shortage, stores have had to round prices up or down. For example if the price of a product after tax was five dollars and fifty-six cents, that would round up to five dollars and sixty cents as there are no pennies, so any number not a multiple of five or ten will not be able to be paid for.
This will ultimately cause problems, such as products being sold for more or less than they are worth. Businesses, especially small businesses if prices are rounded down, will start to lose revenue, this could cause serious financial issues from just losing pennies. With this, some businesses will just be able to round prices up, making them gain more revenue on products than they actually need. This loss of pennies will cause damage for smaller businesses, and cause larger businesses to grow even more wealthy.
Not only that, but there is a problem with the fact there are no federal or state laws put into place yet for rounding transactions. This will cause retailers stress on figuring out how to regulate and round properly without over pricing customers or under pricing. This could cause inconsistencies in how things are actually priced and taxed.
Taking pennies out of circulation perpetuates more problems than it solves them in the end. This can ultimately lead to businesses being able to charge more if they want, or not charge enough for their product, losing revenue.
