Des Moines, Iowa (RI) — At least one Iowa-based bank is telling its customers they can no longer get rolls or boxes of pennies, and checks that don’t end in a zero or five will have to be deposited or reissued. This follows an order from President Trump that the US Treasury stop making pennies. Adam Gregg, president and CEO of the Iowa Bankers Association, says the government is expected to quit producing new pennies for circulation in early 2026, but Iowa banks are already feeling the impact.
Gregg says many other countries have gone through this process of eliminating a small form of currency, and while there may be some bumps along the way, he trusts it will eventually lead to a streamlining of cash transactions. Still, Gregg says the IBA and similar organizations in other states are asking banking regulators and Congress to provide more guidance on how the elimination of pennies will work.
Gregg says it makes sense, with an S, to stop making cents, with a C, as one report shows the U-S Treasury lost more than $85 million on penny production last year alone.
Gregg, who served as Iowa’s lieutenant governor until September of 2024, says businesses across Iowa may soon have to alter their pricing structure, adjusting prices to end in either a zero or a five.
A federal study finds only around 16 percent of US transactions now rely on cash, the rest are electronic — though some industries still rely on coins, like vending machines and laundromats. Coins have been discontinued in the US before, as recently as 2011 with the suspension of production of the dollar coin, and throughout history, as far back as 1857, when Congress ordered the end of the half-cent coin.
KIWA Staff Photo
