American businesses are literally left penniless.
Since the Trump administration stopped minting one-cent coins earlier this year, those still in circulation have become increasingly difficult to find. Many stores now round up their cash sales to the nearest nickel, saying there is no federal guidance on how to proceed.
“This adds up very quickly,” said Dylan Chon, senior director of government affairs for the National Retail Federation.
In February, President Donald Trump said the coin was wasteful and too expensive to produce and called on social media companies to “eliminate waste from our great country's budget, even if it's a penny at a time.”
The US Mint officially stopped minting coins in May. The Treasury Department estimates the deficit will begin in early 2026, but in reality it started much earlier. Banks can't get a penny from the federal government, so businesses can't get them from banks.
“We first heard about this problem in late August and early September,” Mr. Jeong said. “It really impacts any business that does cash payments.”
Now store clerks don’t know what to do when their cash registers are empty, and someone needs change in pennies when buying with cash.
A temporary solution for many is to round up or down the sale price to the nearest five cents so that the buyer can use nickel, the next lowest price in the United States, Mr. Chon said.
But some cities, including New York, require retailers to give exact change, and others do not allow cash payments to be distinguished from card payments for the same item, Mr. Jeong said.
To avoid lawsuits and customer complaints, many retailers have decided to simply round down the amount.
“You're talking about losing up to four cents on every cash transaction at multiple stores across the country,” he said. “It's not sustainable.”
Many stores now encourage customers to pay in exact change. Others run promotions for customers to get extra money they have at home.
Convenience stores are being hit hardest by the shortage, said Jeff Lenard, a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores.
Service giant Kwik Trip announced it was rounding up the figure to the nearest five cents, which it said would cost $3 million (£2.3 million) this year.
American coins have been discontinued before, including the half-cent, three-cent and 20-cent coins, which were discontinued in the 1800s, Mr. Lenard said. However, many years have passed since such a staple as the penny, which came into circulation in 1793, ceased production.
“People don't want that penny until they can get it back in change,” he said.
Earning a penny is worth almost four cents.
But keeping zinc and copper coins in circulation will help low-income Americans who mostly pay in cash, said Mark Weller, executive director of Americans for Common Cents.
“These are people who don't have access to checking accounts, payment cards and banking services,” he said. “You hurt low-income communities when you start rounding up transactions.”
He also believes that the government's savings from not making coins would be offset by the need for more nickels, which cost five cents but cost nearly 14 cents to produce.
People who watch the penny world believe federal guidance is needed for both businesses and consumers on rounding, how to conduct transactions during shortages and generally what to do with the coins.
“There will always be pennies, it's just a low-use coin,” Mr. Jeong said. “People forget about them in their pockets, lose them on the couch, sit in banks. These are coins that do not enter circulation.”
