Businesses plan for change as penny pipeline shuts down
The familiar “take a penny, leave a penny” sign at counters relied on the coin being a part of everyday life.
November’s halt to the minting of new pennies is leading to new signs in some retailers — ones warning the customers of a shortage.
But, while local businesses are bracing for change, several said for now, they’re still getting the pennies they need.
The last penny rolled off the line at the Philadelphia U.S. Mint on Nov. 12. The Department of the Treasury ordered the end of the 232-year-old coin in the fall.
It’s been costing the government more to make the penny. Each Lincoln-stamped coin going into circulation in 2024 cost 3.69 cents to produce, according to the U.S. Mint, an expense being sunk into a coin seeing less and less use.
As of 2024, only 14% of consumer payments used cash, the Federal Reserve said in a report this year.
That figure is still 100% at Osso’s Original Pizza, a cash-only business in Washington, said Mindy Osso, a family member who works at the restaurant.
As the penny disappears, they’ll be adjusting prices to compensate — probably downward, she said.
“They’re like, ‘I don’t want to pay extra, rounding up.’ They don’t mind it rounding down,” she said.
Potter’s Bar & Grill in Uniontown, once cash-only, started accepting cards a decade ago, said manager Harison Lasky, part of the family that owns the restaurant. About 30% to 35% of customers still use cash in a given week.
“It hasn’t affected us yet, and we’re just gonna cross that bridge when we get to it,” he said. “Not much we can do about it anyways, right?”
He’s hoping the restaurant’s point-of-sale system is updated to take out the guesswork by rounding up or rounding down.
Lasky’s not against the change. He thinks it would work best if paired with a change in the state sales tax — at 6%, nearly guaranteed to draw down penny reserves.
“I can’t see the state going down to 5%,” he said. “Jumping up to 10% would be a big jump at once.”
No bills proposing adjustments to the state sales tax have been introduced yet.
Jeffrey Johnson, communications director for the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, said in the absence of guidance from the Trump administration, the department is working to develop additional advice for businesses seeking answers.
“While vendors or retailers may choose to round up or down, the Department of Revenue would still expect the appropriate sales tax to be calculated based on the purchase price prior to any rounding,” he said in an emailed statement.
At RBG Coffee in Waynesburg, they’re “just waiting until we can’t get them anymore” before they figure out how to address it, said manager Deneen Rhodes.
About 30% of customers are still paying with cash, she said. They’ll probably wind up rounding up or down, though Rhodes isn’t sure what the cutoff point will be.
Even when pennies vanish from countertops, it’ll be a long while before they disappear entirely. They stay in circulation for about 30 years, according to the U.S. Mint. Last year, it shipped about 3.2 billion of them.
The end of the penny won’t bother Osso one way or another.
“I can’t buy anything for it anymore,” she said. “For years, I’ve just been throwing them in a jar.”
When pennies become hard to come by, the business will adjust, Rhodes said. On a personal level, she’ll miss it.
Partly it’s because she’s a creature of habit, and the one who does the drawer every day.
Also, she likes being able to help people out.
“It’s just like a little bit of the coffee culture, paying forward, and ‘Here, I’ve got your change,’ even if it is two cents,” she said. “I won’t be able to tell people anymore, ‘I’m going to put my two cents in.'”