S1525-119

What This Bill Does

The Common Cents Act directs Treasury to stop producing one-cent coins for general circulation while allowing numismatic pennies and preserving legal-tender status for pennies minted before enactment. It also lets the five-cent coin use a zinc inner layer and nickel outer layer and weigh between four and six grams. Treasury may set the zinc-nickel composition only after testing that it lowers production cost and, to the greatest practicable extent, minimally disrupts coin-accepting machines.

When exact change is unavailable, sellers, financial institutions, and other parties may round a cash transaction or cash change to the nearest five cents: final digits 1, 2, 6, or 7 may round down; 3, 4, 8, or 9 may round up; and a one- or two-cent total may round to five cents. A business may instead round in the customer's favor, upward when paying the customer and downward when the customer pays. Employers choosing to round a cash wage must round upward, but may pay the exact amount. Rounding is optional and does not apply to checks, cards, electronic transfers, gift cards, money orders, or similar noncash methods.

A person following those rules cannot be treated as violating federal, state, Tribal, or local law solely because of the rounding. That protection does not excuse violations of minimum-wage, overtime, or paid-leave requirements. Within 90 days, the Federal Reserve must publish a penny-terminal and distribution-stability plan. Treasury must assess impacts on low-income communities, older consumers, and people who are debanked, unbanked, or underbanked, including check-cashing effects. The Fed must publish progress reports after six, 18, and 30 months.

For any future circulating coin, Treasury may discontinue minting only after giving banking committees 60 days' notice, explaining fiscal and operational reasons, providing a phaseout plan addressing consumer, business, and economic effects, and briefing the committees within 30 days after notice.

The passed substitute materially changes the introduced bill. The introduction required rounding after one year and required penny cessation by then. The passed text makes rounding optional when exact change is unavailable, adds consumer and wage safeguards, omits a one-year cessation deadline, adds nickel flexibility, and creates transition and future-discontinuation oversight.

Who Benefits and How

The U.S. Mint and federal taxpayers benefit from avoided general-circulation penny costs and potential lower nickel production costs. Businesses and financial institutions gain a lawful method to complete cash transactions during penny shortages and protection against conflicting rounding rules. Customers benefit from optional customer-favorable rounding, and cash-paid workers receive an upward-only safeguard. Low-income, older, unbanked, underbanked, and check-cashing consumers gain a required impact assessment and public transition monitoring. Coin collectors retain access to numismatic pennies.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Retailers, banks, payroll departments, cashiers, and payment-system vendors must implement rounding controls, train staff, preserve exact noncash amounts, and distinguish customer, change, and wage transactions. Cash customers may gain or lose up to two cents under ordinary nearest-five-cent rounding. Zinc, copper, nickel, coin-blank, and vending-machine businesses face changing demand or compatibility costs. The Mint must test new nickel compositions and stop circulation-penny production. Treasury and the Federal Reserve must assess distribution effects, keep commercial terminals functioning, publish four reports, and provide advance plans before ending another coin.

Key Provisions

• Requires Treasury to cease one-cent coin production for general circulation while permitting numismatic issues and preserving existing pennies as legal tender.
• Authorizes a four-to-six-gram layered zinc-and-nickel five-cent coin after cost and machine-impact testing.
• Establishes optional nearest-five-cent cash rounding only when exact change is unavailable and excludes noncash payments.
• Protects customer-favorable rounding and requires any employer-chosen cash-wage rounding to favor the employee.
• Provides federal, state, Tribal, and local legal protection for compliant rounding while preserving wage, overtime, and leave law.
• Requires a public Federal Reserve transition plan, a Treasury vulnerable-consumer assessment, and three progress reports.
• Restricts future discontinuation of circulating coins through advance notice, an impact plan, and a congressional briefing.
• Defines the covered congressional committees and financial institutions subject to the bill's rules.