The Iowa Senate Commerce Committee may consider a statewide policy for how retailers that don’t have pennies provide change during a cash transaction. The U.S. Mint stopped making new pennies last year and the Iowa Retail Federation says it’s difficult for Iowa businesses to get pennies for their cash registers. If the policy introduced in the state Senate becomes Iowa law, a consumer paying with cash would see their final bill rounded up or rounded down to the nearest nickel. Michael Gathman, CEO of Community Bankers of Iowa, says the scarce supply of pennies is starting to have an impact as people cash checks at Iowa banks and the bill would help.
“It’s not a problem, but there’s no standardization,” Gathman said, “so it just gives some meaningful guidance for people to be consistent and be fair to consumers and the retailers.”
Tom Cope, a lobbyist for Casey’s General Stores, says the bill addresses the challenge.
“In 2024, 3.2 billion pennies were made each year and they’ve now stopped making pennies and so this legislation makes it easier for the retailers to figure out how to address the situation,” Cope said, “so we appreciate the bill very much.”
The bill won unanimous support in a Senate subcommittee Thursday afternoon. In October, Kwik Star stores in Iowa began phasing out pennies in change and rounding cash transactions to the nearest nickel. Canada stopped distributing pennies in 2013 and uses the rounding method when people pay in cash.
