On Nov. 12, 2025, the last circulating penny dropped from a U.S. Mint press, ending a manufacturing run that had lasted 232 years.
Acting Mint Director Kristie McNally addressed the ceremonial final strike that day. “Today the Mint celebrates 232 years of penny manufacturing,” she said.
She added a second line. “While general production concludes today, the penny’s legacy lives on.”
Congress now wants to turn that Mint decision into statute. On Monday, House members passed the Common Cents Act, H.R. 10167.
The chamber used a voice vote under suspension of the rules, a fast-track method generally reserved for bills with wide bipartisan backing.
Nobody recorded a roll call, so the House has no official tally of how individual members stood.
Two lawmakers from opposite parties wrote the bill: Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., who chairs the House Republican Conference, and Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif.
Money drove the Mint’s move. By the time the presses stopped, each penny cost about 3.69 cents to produce. Treasury estimated the shutdown would save roughly $56 million a year in materials.
Under the bill, Treasury would have to halt penny production for general circulation on a permanent basis. The department could still strike small quantities for collectors.
Pennies already in wallets, jars and cash drawers keep their value.
The bill preserves them as legal tender for purchases, debts and taxes. Treasury figures put the number still in circulation at nearly 300 billion.
The bill’s most visible change lands at the checkout counter. A business that cannot make exact change on a cash sale would be allowed to round the final total to the nearest five cents.
The direction depends on the last digit. A total ending in 1, 2, 6 or 7 cents rounds down, while one ending in 3, 4, 8 or 9 cents rounds up.
Under that formula, a $4.12 total becomes $4.10, and $4.13 becomes $4.15. Totals ending in zero or five stay put.
The provision covers only cash payments made when exact change is unavailable.
Credit cards, debit cards, checks, electronic transfers, gift cards and other non-cash methods would still settle to the exact cent.
Merchants who have pennies on hand may keep handing out exact change instead of rounding.
The legislation also turns to the five-cent coin.
It would give Treasury authority to develop a cheaper nickel, provided testing shows the new version reduces costs without creating significant problems for vending machines and other coin-processing equipment.
The current nickel is made of 75% copper and 25% nickel. Like the penny, it costs more to manufacture than its face value.
The bill assigns the Federal Reserve its own job: designing a nationwide strategy for managing the transition, including the huge supply of pennies still in circulation.
It also directs officials to examine how cash rounding affects lower-income consumers, older Americans and people without access to traditional banking services.
The House vote followed action in the other chamber. The Senate passed its version, S. 1525, by unanimous consent on Aug. 7 after adopting substitute language.
The Senate received H.R. 10167 from the House the day after the House vote and referred it to the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
Because the two chambers passed measures with different bill numbers, Congress must take further action before a final version reaches President Donald Trump for his signature.
