For decades, amusement parks, gardens, museums, zoos, boardwalks, and anywhere else offer – for a price – to commemorate your visit by embossing their logo or image onto a penny, the underlying premise that pennies are useless and most people won’t miss them.
Though illegal to intentionally mutilate or damage bank notes to prevent usage (Title 18, U.S.C., § 279 in 1909, superseded by Title 18, U.S.C., § 333), only in 2007 did the Treasury Department issued a rule protecting pennies and nickels because the raw metal is worth more than the coins themselves (31 CFR § 82.1(a))
With the US Department of the Treasury decision to cease minting pennies, pennies must now be protected from wanton and unnecessary destruction. despite an estimated 300 billion in circulation, retailers were immediately impacted by this cessation and took steps to ration existing stock. Pennies remain legal tender with no plans to remove from circulation, though many (most) sit in coin jars awaiting their trip to a Coinstar kiosk.
Canada implemented a (supposedly sensible) rounding strategy for cash transactions which US retailers adopted when not banned as cash discrimination. Surprisingly, a follow-up study in Canada showed penny-rounding benefited retailers rather than a wash between retailers and customers.
It remains too early to conclude how everyone will adapt. Cashless transactions continue to grow year-over-year: does this growth now accelerate? Does the federal government implement a standard rounding policy that shares risk? Pennies becoming currency non grata seems unlikely as the United States have obsoleted but never demonetized any currency or coins.
Somewhere you likely can place bets on ultimate outcome!
