![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vlcsnap-2026-03-23-22h06m10s024.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Pennies may soon lose their place in your pocket. Cash could soon be rounded to the nearest nickel under a bill passed by Florida state lawmakers.<\/p>\n
The proposal would allow businesses to round cash transactions up or down to the nearest five cents. It would only apply to cash payments, not credit or debit cards.<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
The change followed a 2025 decision by the U.S. Mint to stop making pennies as production costs climbed to nearly four cents per coin.<\/p>\n
Abigail Hall is an associate professor of economics at the University of Tampa. She says that shift resulted in a nationwide penny shortage.<\/p>\n
What they’re saying:<\/p>\n
“It ultimately cost more to produce pennies than the pennies were worth,” Hall said. “This has effectively led to a massive penny shortage.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She also points to the potential law changing how people pay, especially those who rely on cash.<\/p>\n
“Cash consumers tend to be lower income individuals,” Hall said.<\/p>\n
“There is concern about inequality. Cash transactions are subject to this rounding procedure. If you’re paying with credit or debit cards, this doesn’t impact you at all.”<\/p>\n
Jeff Lenard is a spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores.<\/p>\n
“There\u2019s going to have to be some conversations between the customer and the retailer explaining how this all works,” he said.<\/p>\n
By the numbers:<\/p>\n
Florida<\/a> has over 9,000 convenience stores \u2014 the 3rd most nationwide \u2014 as many handle a large share of cash transactions.<\/p>\n “We\u2019re at 40 to 50% inside the store in many locations that are cash,” Lenard said. “The penny shortage is something that affects stores on a very regular basis.”<\/p>\n He believes gains or losses from rounding should even out over time.<\/p>\n “Nobody wins, nobody loses,” Lenard concluded. “It\u2019s a new system, and it\u2019s worked in Canada and other places for more than a dozen years.”<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n The new law would take effect immediately, if signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Source: Information for this story came from statements from the Florida Legislature and National Association of Convenience Stores, interviews with an economics professor and previous reporting on FOX 13.<\/p>\n Florida<\/a>Money<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Pennies may soon lose their place in your pocket. Cash could soon be rounded to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[47,28,30,29,2159,115,628],"class_list":{"0":"post-203333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-fl","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-money","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/vlcsnap-2026-03-23-22h05m47s592.jpg\")
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