American cash checkout is set to change for good once President Trump signs the Common Cents Act ending penny production, a bipartisan cut to long-running government waste.
Congress has cleared the Common Cents Act and sent it to the president’s desk, locking in an end to new pennies for general circulation and setting cash totals to round to the nearest nickel. Retailers are already adjusting, and the signature would make the shift permanent.
The Sun reported that the bill passed the House on September 14, 2026, and the Senate on September 28, 2026. It awaits Trump’s signature, with no final implementation date set yet. Existing pennies stay legal tender. Credit cards, checks, and wire transfers are untouched.
The point is simple. Minting a one-cent coin has cost more than the coin is worth. Keeping that going was waste by design. The Common Cents Act ends it.
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan and Rep. Robert Garcia of California led the measure in the House. Sens. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York sponsored it in the Senate. That pairing alone shows how far the old penny had fallen.
The New York Post reported the House passed the bipartisan bill in a unanimous vote, sending the smallest U.S. coin “the way of the dodo.” The measure stops minting pennies except for collector coins, builds a framework to round cash transactions to the nearest five cents, and blocks any easy reversal. It also allows cheaper materials for nickels as production costs have run above face value.
The U.S. Mint had already halted penny production in November 2025 after 232 years. Congress is now writing that stop into law so a future administration cannot quietly restart the presses.
Trump flagged the waste last year and ordered the Mint to stop producing pennies. He instructed the Treasury secretary to end new penny production and framed the move as part of a broader drive to strip waste from the federal budget.
He put it plainly:
"For far too long, the United States has minted pennies, which literally cost us more than 2 cents."
And:
"This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the U.S. Treasury to stop producing new pennies."
Then the closer:
"Let’s rip the waste out of our great nation’s budget, even if it’s a penny at a time."
That is the conservative case in three lines. If a coin costs more to make than it buys, stop making it. Do not wait for another study. Do not keep the presses running for nostalgia.
Once the law is in force, cash totals ending in 1, 2, 6, or 7 cents round down to the nearest nickel. Totals ending in 3, 4, 8, or 9 cents round up. Only cash customers see the change. Card and electronic payments stay exact to the cent.
Retailers have already started rolling out those policies because pennies are getting scarce. Some cash customers have complained they feel shortchanged. The math cuts both ways over time. A total that rounds down one day can round up the next. The policy is mechanical, not a quiet tax.
The bill also directs a study of effects on vulnerable groups and keeps an upward-rounding exception for cash wages, per the House package. Pennies already in jars, drawers, and registers remain good money. No one has to turn them in.
For years Washington kept minting a coin that lost money on every strike. That is the opposite of stewardship. Taxpayers funded the copper, zinc, labor, and logistics for a denomination that no longer carried its own weight in daily trade.
The Common Cents Act does what Congress should have done earlier. It ends general-circulation production. It sets a clear cash-rounding rule. It leaves non-cash payments alone. It keeps circulating pennies as legal tender so no one is stuck with dead metal.
McClain posted about the effort on Instagram as the House work advanced. The bipartisan roster, Michigan and California in the House, Wyoming and New York in the Senate, undercuts any claim that this is a partisan stunt. When both parties can agree a coin costs too much to make, the case is closed.
Signature timing is still unclear. Implementation will follow the president’s pen. Until then, stores will keep adapting to fewer pennies in the till, and cash buyers will keep seeing totals nudged to the nearest five cents.
Washington finally treated a losing line item like a losing line item. That is how a serious government handles small waste before it becomes habit.