The penny just got sent to the retirement home in Florida — and shoppers may soon be nickel-and-dimed instead.
Ron DeSantis signed a new law Monday officially preparing the Sunshine State for life after the penny, giving businesses the green light to round cash purchases up or down to the nearest nickel.
That means your $4.99 coffee could suddenly become a clean $5 bill — or your $10.02 sandwich order could drop to an even $10.00 — depending on how the total rounds out.
The new law, SB 1074, took effect immediately and comes after the federal government decided last year to stop producing the penny because, believe it or not, it now costs more than 3 cents to make a 1-cent coin.
Yep. America was literally losing money making money.
Under the Florida law, only cash transactions can be rounded — and only if businesses choose to do it. Credit cards, online purchases and digital payments still get charged down to the exact penny.
Florida’s new rounding rules work like this:
Totals ending in 1 or 2 cents round down
3 or 4 cents round up to 5
6 or 7 cents round down to 5
8 or 9 cents round up to 10
Totals ending in 0 or 5 stay the same
So if your gas station snack run comes to $7.98, congratulations — you just bought an $8 bag of chips.
Supporters say the move modernizes commerce and cuts down on the hassle of handling mountains of nearly worthless coins.
“With this framework, Florida is a model for how states can navigate currency changes,” said Florida Retail Federation CEO Scott Shalley.
Translation: the penny is toast.
The last penny blank was reportedly pressed in Philadelphia in November 2025, ending a 233-year run for Abraham Lincoln’s tiny copper headache.
Rest in cents.
