Cent-rounding bill up for second read in Missouri Senate

By: Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ) -- A Missouri house bill joining the national initiative to remove pennies from circulation is set to be read for a second time in the Missouri Senate on Monday.

House Bill 2819, sponsored by Brenda Shields (R-St. Joseph), will allow vendors to round the total cost of transactions to the nearest five cents. According to the bill text, this will only apply to the final total of cash transactions after all discounts and taxes have been calculated.

The bill adds that totals ending in $0.01, $0.02, $0.06, or $0.07 may be rounded down while totals ending in $0.03, $0.04, $0.08, or $0.09 may be rounded up, leaving totals ending in either $0.05 or $0.00.

According to the U.S. Treasury, they do not expect the overall cost of products to be affected.

"For cash transactions, as final transaction prices will be rounded down just as often as they will be rounded up, so there should be no overall effect on consumer prices," they said in a statement.

President Donald Trump announced the end of penny production early last year, calling it wasteful. According to ABC News, the U.S. Mint reported in 2024 it cost 3.7 cents to make each 1-cent coin.

Around 114 billion pennies are still in circulation.