{"id":28865,"date":"2025-07-08T08:27:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T12:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wasserstrom.com\/blog\/?p=28865"},"modified":"2025-07-08T08:27:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T12:27:21","slug":"your-restaurants-strategy-for-a-penny-free-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wasserstrom.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/08\/your-restaurants-strategy-for-a-penny-free-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Restaurant’s Strategy for a Penny-Free Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2024, the US Mint incurred a gross cost of $117 million to produce 3,172 million pennies<\/a>, resulting in an estimated loss of $85.3 million<\/strong>. Due to the economic inefficiency of minting a coin that costs significantly more to produce than its face value, the US government is actively phasing out the penny. In this article, we examine the potential changes restaurants will face and provide probable solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Penny’s Last Supper<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Dollar<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In February 2025, the US government announced its intention to phase out penny production by early 2026<\/a>. While economically pragmatic, this change will primarily affect restaurants in the following ways: cash transaction rounding rules and POS system adjustments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cash Isn’t Going Anywhere (Yet)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Although it\u2019s become less common to find truly cash-only foodservice establishments, a segment of consumers still rely on cash. In general, however, cash payments have been steadily declining across all sectors due to the convenience of digital payment technologies and the ubiquity of credit card usage. Despite the decline, accepting cash remains important for restaurants: an estimated 5.6 million unbanked households<\/a> in the US rely on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To protect the financial inclusion of these millions of consumers, some states have passed laws that prevent businesses from refusing cash payments<\/strong>, including Massachusetts, Arizona, South Carolina, Colorado, West Virginia, Connecticut, Delaware, and Tennessee, among others. Other states have cities with cashless business bans, such as San Francisco, Berkeley, Philadelphia, West Hollywood, Washington, D.C., and Detroit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The penny’s departure may accelerate the ongoing trend towards cashless payments. Cash, however, will likely persist as a payment option for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rounding Out the Details <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While electronic payments and credit card transactions will remain unaffected, restaurant operators will be required to round cash transactions to the nearest five cents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, the US isn\u2019t the first country to eliminate low-denomination coins, which gives lawmakers examples of how to successfully implement this change. Canada, for instance, phased out its penny in 2012. Now, the most popular rounding methodologies under consideration mirror Canada’s symmetric rules:<\/p>\n\n\n\n