CHICAGO, October 9, 2026 – With the federal government scaling back on producing the one-cent coin, Chicago’s retailers and restaurateurs are not wasting any time making changes. Behind the closed doors of countless check-out counters in Cook County, business owners are making subtle changes in the way they handle their money in anticipation of doing away with the use of pennies. This decision is simply based on numbers; the U.S. Mint’s Annual Report for 2024 shows that it costs 3.69 cents to produce one penny.
The daily practice is surprisingly simple for store owners. Payment systems are adopting the conventional cash-rounding approach implemented in Canada during its currency conversion in 2013. Cash amounts after taxes are now rounded to nickels. One cent and two cents round down, and three and four cents round up.
It is important that such calculations only apply to physical cash. There will be no rounding whatsoever for credit and debit cards, mobile payments, or shelf prices of $0.99 and other similar. What is crucial is the official notification from the U.S. Department of the Treasury that pennies are still considered legal tender.
“It’s a huge relief for register operations,” noted one West Loop cafe owner. “We’ll save hours every month just on counting rolls and making bank runs.”
According to research carried out by the Federal Reserve System, symmetrical rounding leads to a balanced system in the long run. Little rounding up on one product will balance the little roundings down on another, ensuring that consumers pay fair prices without hurting their profit margins much. With high transaction volume in local places such as corner grocery stores and diners, getting rid of the logistics of pennies eliminates costs on armored transportation and fastens lines.
Although billions of cents will remain in use for quite some time, there will be no more government supply of them. The software in Chicago area businesses is being refined now to ensure clarity of all items on the receipt.
