The penny has been a staple of American money for more than 230 years, kept in piggy banks and lost under couch cushions.

The U.S. Mint ended production of new pennies on Nov. 12, 2025. Treasury officials said the decision came down to a simple calculation. The penny had become too expensive to make—it’s 3.69 cents to produce this coin worth only one cent.

By halting production, the U.S. Department of the Treasury estimates it will save roughly $56 million annually.

Pennies already in circulation remain legal tender. According to the Federal Reserve, there are still more than 150 billion circulating through the economy.

While the change may seem small, it has quietly reshaped daily operations for community banks across Minnesota.

The Cost for Our Banks

A community bank is a locally owned institution that is more likely than mega banks to do personalized lending with small businesses. They also tend to have less than $10 billion in assets and hold only a few branches, maintaining their “community feel” in small-town areas.

For Minnesota’s community banks that supply coins to local businesses, the first sign of the shift came when the penny supply abruptly stopped.

“At our branches, suddenly we were unable to order boxes of pennies from the [Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis],” said Jean Chalifoux Kiely, director of consumer banking at Sunrise Banks, based in St. Paul. “It came without awareness or communication.”

Her team had discussed how to handle the coin’s disappearance someday, because treasury and government circles have talked about eliminating the penny for more than 20 years. Kiely just didn’t expect the transition to start so quickly.

Noah Wilcox, president and CEO of Grand Rapids State Bank, says the lack of federal guidance on rounding practices has created uncertainty.

“If a customer comes in to cash a check for $4.63 and I give them $4.60 because I don’t have three pennies, the regulator could say I’m causing consumer harm,” he explains.

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But rounding up could also present a problem for banks.

“If I give them $4.65 instead, multiply that by the number of transactions we do every month, the impact to the bank will be pretty significant,” Wlicox says.

Wilcox, who is also the former chairman of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA), says he urged the Fed to provide a standard cash-rounding policy or safe harbor for banks. So far, there isn’t one.

“When we run out of pennies, can we round down?” Wilcox says he asked government officials. “If I round down, I feel like I am exposing myself to significant risk in the future.”

“We can’t answer that,” he says the Fed told him.

At North American Banking Company in the Twin Cities, CEO Michael Bilski says the halt of penny production has so far produced little customer backlash.

“We’ve heard very little complaints or concerns,” Bilski says. Instead, the bank has seen customers bringing in buckets or pails of pennies to deposit.

Bilski shares that when customers cash checks that include an odd number of cents, like 53, his bank can deposit the leftover change into their accounts online rather than hand over physical coins.

Bridgewater Bank also hasn’t seen a meaningful operational impact from the U.S. Mint’s decision to stop producing the penny. Pennies already in circulation continue to be available through its coin and currency provider, and it has been able to meet client needs.

“For banks like Bridgewater, where many clients are commercial businesses rather than high-volume cash retailers, the change has been something we’re monitoring, but it has not required any operational adjustments at this time,” says Katie Klug, Bridgewater Bank’s chief deposit officer.

Sunrise Banks’ Solution

Without clear guidance from the Fed on how to round, banks have been forced to figure out its own policies.

At Sunrise Banks, Chalifoux Kiely says tellers offer customers the option to round up to the nearest nickel during cash-back transactions. If a check ends in two cents, for example, the bank may pay out five cents instead, absorbing the difference. If the customer says, “Keep the change,” then Sunrise Banks will donate those extra cents to a nonprofit.

“We wanted to make sure customers feel they are being treated fairly and not losing out,” Chalifoux Kiely says.

The strategy also reflects another shift already underway: an increased demand for nickels.

“We’ve seen an increase in orders for nickels since the change,” she says.

Ironically, nickels are also expensive to produce—costing more than 13 cents each—raising questions about whether they could someday face the same fate as the penny.

Bilski predicts paper checks will be the next thing to go away. In 1997, the U.S. government took steps to phase out paper checks for federal payments. But checks are still valuable, Bilski adds, and that’s the reason they haven’t been phased out completely like the penny.

Pennies Aren’t Gone Yet

When the U.S. Mint announced it would stop producing the one-cent piece, it wasn’t an unusual announcement for a country to make. Since the 1990s, Australia and New Zealand each has dropped its smallest currency denominations: pennies and two-cent coins. Canada stopped producing its penny in 2012.

With more than 150 billion pennies still circulating, the coins will continue flowing through banks, retailers, and customers for years.

“We’re far from seeing the last of our pennies,” Chalifoux Kiely says.

Wilcox says, to keep the coin in circulation, his team has asked its customers to not bring in pennies. But when customers have orders with an odd number of cents, “we just to have fill them as we can. When [pennies are] gone, they’re gone. It will eventually happen.”