Some retailers say they have run out of pennies and can’t get more from their banks, forcing them to make changes at the cash register.
At Richardson Farms in White Marsh, Maryland, President Leslie Richardson said his bank stopped delivering pennies late last year.
“We were no longer getting pennies delivered to us,” he said. “The bank told us it would be coming, and sure enough, a couple of weeks later, we haven’t seen a penny.”
While the store still accepts pennies, Richardson said it generally does not have them unless customers bring them in. As a result, he activated a register setting that rounds cash totals to the nearest five cents.
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The U.S. Mint stopped producing pennies last summer because the cost to make one — nearly four cents — exceeded its value. But Jeff Lenard, spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores, said billions of coins already in circulation are sitting unused.
“When you get change, you stick it in a jar, you stick it in an ashtray, you stick it somewhere else. It doesn’t recirculate,” Lenard said. “When there’s not many around, you need constant new pennies. That’s not happening right now, and that’s why we have this shortage.”
He called the situation “the great penny mess” and said rounding in favor of customers could cost the convenience store industry roughly $1 million a day.
Lawmakers have introduced the Common Cents Act, which would standardize rounding nationwide. Under the bill, cash totals ending in 1 or 2 cents would round down to the nearest five cents, while totals ending in 3 or 4 cents would round up. Amounts ending in 6 or 7 cents would round down, and 8 or 9 cents would round up.
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The Treasury Department is encouraging shoppers to spend the pennies they have and recommends rounding cash transactions to the nearest five cents. However, it says retailers should still accept pennies and provide penny change if they have it.
So far, no vote has been scheduled on the federal measure.
