A Nickel for Your Thoughts: How the Penny’s Retirement will Impact Cash Transactions for Small Businesses

On November 12, 2025, the penny was officially retired, and the U.S. Mint stopped producing the one-cent coin after 232 years. Why? Because it costs about 3.7 cents to make a 1-cent coin. (Yes, really.) The change is expected to save about $56 million a year.

Don’t worry—this change isn’t going to break your business. But it will change how cash transactions work. In this article, we’ll go over new cash rounding rules, the impact this change has on small businesses, and questions you may want to ask your point of sale provider.

Cash Rounding Rules for Small Businesses Now that the Penny is Retired

For cash payments only, totals will be rounded to the nearest nickel:

• Ending in 1 or 2 → round down to 0
• Ending in 3 or 4 → round up to 5
• Ending in 6 or 7 → round down to 5
• Ending in 8 or 9 → round up to 10

Important: These rounding rules will not apply to credit cards, debit cards, or digital payments. Those stay exact to the penny.

What Nickel Rounding Means for a Retail or Restaurant Business

If you’re in the retail or restaurant industry and accept cash:

• Your POS system needs to handle rounding. Most modern systems already do—or will with an update. If yours doesn’t, now is the time to check.
• Train your team. Customers will notice at first, but a simple “we round cash totals now since the penny is retired” goes a long way.
• No pricing changes required. Your prices stay the same—rounding only occurs on the final total, not each individual item.
• Cash drawers get simpler. Fewer coins, faster transactions, and slightly less time spent counting change. Small win.

Even though the penny has been retired, businesses can still use existing pennies—they remain legal tender. Banks will continue accepting penny deposits, but many are starting to phase out penny roll orders since no new pennies are being produced. If your business is already running into change shortages or cash-handling headaches, transitioning to nickel rounding sooner rather than later may be worth considering.

Quick Gut Check: Questions to Ask Your POS Provider

If you’re not sure your point of sale system is ready for these new rounding rules, here are the questions to ask your POS provider:

• Does our system automatically round cash transactions to the nearest $0.05?
• Can it separate cash vs. card logic (round one, not the other)?
• How does it show rounding on the receipt? (Transparency matters.)
• Will this impact our sales tax calculation or reporting? (It shouldn’t—but verify.)
• Do we need to turn this feature on, or is it already active?

If your provider hesitates on any of these… take it as your sign to dig deeper.

The Bigger Picture: Preparing Your Business for Cash Rounding

Rounding cash transactions to the nearest 1, 5, or 10 cents is really about efficiency. The government stopped losing money producing pennies, and businesses ultimately get a slightly smoother cash process.

And if you’re thinking, “Most of my customers don’t even use cash anymore”… you’re not wrong.

For most businesses, the impact will be minimal—but it’s worth making sure your systems and team are ready.