TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – America may still technically have about 250 billion pennies floating around out there, but you wouldn’t know it from standing in line at a northern lower Michigan gas station this week. A Facebook post in a Traverse City community group – with more than 145,000 members – set off a meltdown over a quietly emerging reality: the penny is disappearing, and retailers are improvising.
The now-viral Facebook post included a photo of a paper sign at a convenience-store counter declaring, “Pennies are no longer available at this location.” The caption of the community post says: “And it begins…” By Friday morning, more than 580 comments were stacked under the post – some confused, some angry, and some ready to testify before Congress on the matter.
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The sign explains that all cash totals would now be rounded up or down depending on the final amount owed.
How rounding works.
The Traverse City retailer is following the model popping up across the country: rounding to the nearest nickel on cash transactions. Totals ending in 1, 2, 6, or 7 cents round down. Totals ending in 3, 4, 8, or 9 round up.
In real life:
• $10.01 or $10.02 → $10.00
• $10.03 or $10.04 → $10.05
• $10.06 or $10.07 → $10.05
• $10.08 or $10.09 → $10.10
If you’re paying with a credit card, relax. Nothing changes. The machines still believe in exact math.
The great penny exit (and the national headache).
This isn’t just a Traverse City quirk either. Signs just like the one in Traverse City are showing up from California to Connecticut. Retailers simply can’t get pennies anymore – suppliers don’t have them, banks are limiting distribution, and the U.S. Mint has phased them out entirely.
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Some shoppers swear rounding is illegal. Others think it’s a corporate cash-grab. Retailers say they’re just trying to operate in a country where the penny has gone the way of the VHS tape.
According to a Center Square report, Kwik Kwik Trip, a major Midwest chain with 900 stores, switched to rounding in October. Even McDonald’s has begun symmetrical rounding in some locations. And with no federal guidance, stores are stuck making things up as they go.
What about Michigan? The state treasury has something to say about it.
The Michigan Department of Treasury issued an official notice on Dec. 8, 2025 explaining how rounding intersects with state sales and use tax laws. Spoiler: rounding is allowed, but stores must follow tax rules.
According to the Michigan Treasury:
• Sales and use tax must be calculated to the nearest cent before any rounding occurs.
• Stores may round afterward “at their discretion” – up, down, or to the nearest nickel.
• Extra pennies collected due to rounding are not considered unlawful enrichment as long as tax was correctly calculated.
• Treasury recommends stores list any rounding adjustments on receipts for transparency.
In plain English: Michigan allows rounding as long as the tax paid to them is correct, the process is fair, and receipts don’t turn into creative writing projects.
Customer confusion and ignorance of the law is the real problem.
The biggest blowups aren’t about the math at all – they’re about the awful job some stores are doing explaining the change and how few shoppers know the actual rules behind it. So when someone spots the sign after they’ve paid, the knee-jerk assumption is that the retailer is quietly pocketing their spare change. Is it chaotic? Absolutely. Is it a conspiracy against customers? Only if you believe “Big Nickel” has seized control of the economy.
If a store were rounding only in its own favor, or applying rounding to card transactions, that would be a problem. But neutral, posted, consistent rounding? Perfectly legal in most places – but not perfectly loved.
Retailers don’t have to accept pennies either.
Private retailers are generally not federally mandated to accept pennies (or any specific form of U.S. currency) for payment. While U.S. coins are considered “legal tender” for all debts, this applies to the settlement of existing debts, not necessarily to a private business engaging in a new sales transaction. According to the FAQ with the Federal Reserve, “There is no federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law that says otherwise.”
Where things stand now.
Until retailers adopt a uniform system – or Congress issues some guidance it forgot to include when the penny was killed – America will remain stuck in a bizarre, penny-free limbo. Rounding will most likely continue. Shoppers will continue debating it. And social media will continue treating every unreturned copper coin like evidence of a nationwide conspiracy. In the meantime? Check your car cupholder. You might be sitting on tomorrow’s most valuable commodity
