Penny shortage shifts the way some businesses, including McDonald’s, make change

Businesses facing a shortage of pennies after the Treasury Department stopped making new cent pieces this year are rounding their customers’ change to make due.

“Following the discontinuation of pennies nationwide, some McDonald’s locations may not be able to provide exact change. We have a team actively working on long-term solutions to keep things simple and fair for customers. This is an issue affecting all retailers across the country, and we will continue to work with the federal government to obtain guidance,” McDonald’s told Nexstar Media.

The fast food giant’s statement was prompted by a photo on social media from a McDonald’s location showing a rounding scale: change ending in a one or two would be rounded down to zero cents, change ending in a three or four would round up to 5 cents, change ending in six or seven would round down to 5 cents and change ending in an eight or nine would round up to 10 cents.

Some convenience stores have altered their change policies as well.

Love’s is rounding change in favor of the customer — if someone is owed 22 cents, for example, they would receive a quarter instead. Kwik Trip is rounding down to the nearest nickel, for example from 18 cents to 15 cents, while Sheetz is encouraging customers to trade in pennies for free self-serve drinks, according to Nexstar Media.

The National Association of Convenience Stores has called on Congress to pass a law that would allow businesses to round change to the nearest nickel amidst retailers’ confusion about when and where pennies will be in short supply next.

“The Federal Reserve distributes these coins throughout the nation and is reporting that dozens of coin distribution locations have already run out of pennies to distribute to facilitate commerce. Many more will run out soon in the coming days that will impact every congressional district. Main Street businesses do not have the insight into where pennies will stop being available next and how soon that will occur,” the trade association said.

President Trump called for the end of the penny in a post on Truth Social in February, writing, “For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies. Let’s rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”

The U.S. Mint, which produces the money, found in a 2024 report that both nickels and pennies cost more to make than their worth for the 19th straight year. A penny costs about 3.7 cents to produce while a nickel costs about 13.8 cents.

The Treasury Department ordered its last round of blanks to make new pennies in May and projected that a penny shortage would start early next year, according to the Wall Street Journal.