The days of saying “a penny for your thoughts” may be numbered. As of yesterday, the House of Representatives has unanimously voted to send the humble penny to the big piggy bank in the sky, courtesy of the amusingly titled Common Cents Act. The act blocks the US Treasury from minting any new 1-cent coins (except for collector coins) and establishes a new framework designed to eliminate the need for them. As per the terms of the act, cash transactions that would have required a penny for exact change will be now rounded to the nearest five cents. That means a $9.99 price will become $10.00, and $9.96 will become $9.95. There’s an exception for cash wages, which must now be rounded upwards if the total isn’t divisible by 5 cents. Should you rush to spend a penny? So what about your change jar? Is it time to begin the painstaking task of sorting through it to exchange the pennies? Fortunately, at least for the foreseeable future, the estimated 300 billion pennies currently in circulation will stay legal tender, though no new pennies are being struck. The House voted to permanently eliminate the penny, bringing the U.S. closer to ending the coin’s more than 200-year run. pic.twitter.com/VKAparUFmD— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) September 15, 2026 The core reason behind the elimination is simple: pennies now cost more than their value to produce. As per the US Mint’s figures, each 1-cent coin costs about 3.69 cents to produce in raw materials. In addition, the colossal number of existing pennies is considered far more than is needed for commerce, with the Mint noting that many of the existing pennies are simply lying dormant in change jars, forgotten pockets, down the back of the sofa, and so on. The US Mint is projecting annual savings of $56 million from eliminating the penny, but the House has confirmed it’s now actively monitoring whether the move will impact low-income people, older consumers, and debanked people. The bill will still face approval from the Senate and the White House, though unless Donald Trump has a particular attachment to the penny, the unanimous cross-party support for the bill should mean the Common Cents Act will become law soon. However, there is some opposition. Advocacy group Americans for Common Cents has been fighting against this elimination, with backing from the zinc industry that supplies the penny blanks. Its executive director, Mark Weller, says this move is like “waving the white flag in the face of inflation”, and argued that charitable donations may be impacted: “the penny aids charities in raising hundreds of millions of dollars each year for important causes” through coin drives.