How Are Maine Businesses Dealing With the End of the Penny?

Over the years, we have seen some significant changes made to US currency.

In most cases, these changes were intended to make our paper money more secure.  Basically, the changes were meant to make it more difficult to produce counterfeight versions of our paper money.

However, a recent change, which many would say was a long time coming, will end up saving the country millions of dollars.

In May 2025, it was announced that our nation would be discontinuing the penny.  The last penny was minted on November 12th, 2025.  The main reason given was the fact that it costs more to make a penny than it is worth.  Of course, other reasons include the assumption that most people rarely use pennies and that making it so that every price is rounded to the nearest 5 cents would simplify payments.

How Are Maine Businesses Dealing With the Loss of the Penny?

While we suspect many businesses are handling it in different ways, we do know that Maine Irving locations, like our Rusty Lanterns, are rounding to the nearest five cents.

For example, if the price ends with a 1 or a 2, the price gets rounded down.  Total prices that end in a 3 or 4 get rounded up to a 5.

These signs explaining the rounding procedure are posted at most local Rusty Lantern locations:

We suspect that, before too long, all of our prices will be changed to end in a 5 or a 0.

Do you work in a local business?  What is your business doing?  Let us know by sending us a message using our app.