It's been a long time coming but the death of the Penny finally came true in 2025.
We are still using them, the government just stopped making them since they cost nearly 4 cents to produce just one.

Is it really bad news, though? Well, it could be for some consumers who believe cash is king.

Raptis Family Restaurant has been a staple in Howland for 38 years.
They believe it's not just because of the good food, owners there say their cash-only business model helps keep their prices low. But you guessed it, they need those pennies.

"We'll use a decent amount of pennies. A lot of our prices end in 8 or 9 so a lot of people do use pennies," said Raptis owner, George Raptis.

Even if they changed the menu prices there's always tax so the check never ends in zero or five.
So what do they do now that pennies are scarce?

"We round down so that way it ends in a five or a zero and we use more for the dimes or the nickels. Rounding down benefits the customer better, just the fact the price is a little lower," said Raptis.

The Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance doesn't want to see businesses have to foot the bill for the loss of the penny. Rounding down costs them money but rounding up would make customers mad.
They say the government should have planned ahead.

"The problem is they didn't provide any guidance to consumers or businesses on how to handle the fact that when we go in a buy something and it doesn't round to a perfect nickel or dime somebody has to make a decision on what happens at that point and without guidance businesses are left to figure it out on their own right now," said John Barker, of the ORHA.

So right now it depends on what small businesses want to do.
It's hard to believe but there are 114 billion pennies still in circulation. The problem is many people are hoarding them so businesses are running short.

It's something Farmers National Bank in Canfield says they've been planning for.

"We're not taking pennies out of circulation but we can't order them anymore so all banks had to be proactive, Farmers was proactive about it, having internal meetings preparing our staff to have conversations with businesses and consumers.," said Ricardo Cruz of Farmers National Bank.

Credit or debit card users don't seem to care because they aren't really effected but those who pay with cash, it just makes it harder for them.

And it won't be getting any easier...the cost to make one nickel right now is 13.8 cents, so you know what's coming next.