House Votes to Eliminate Penny Permanently
Left 33%
Center 0%
Right 67%
1 left · 0 center · 2 right
What happened
On Monday, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed the bipartisan Common Cents Act, led by House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) and Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.). The bill would bar the Treasury from minting new pennies except as collector coins, set a framework for rounding most cash transactions to the nearest five cents (with cash wages rounded upward if not divisible by five cents), and allow the U.S. Mint to make nickels from cheaper materials; existing pennies would remain legal tender. The Mint had already stopped producing pennies in November 2025 after 232 years, with production costing more than three times face value as of 2025 and the Treasury estimating $56 million in annual savings. The measure, which adds cash-rounding language absent from an earlier McClain bill that had passed the Senate, would need President Donald Trump’s signature and directs the Treasury to study effects on low-income people, older consumers, and people without bank accounts.
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 3 articles
2 of 3 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 2 of 3
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: U.S. Treasury, Lisa McClain, Robert Garcia and House of Representatives
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 1 of 3
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: press release, legislation, official statement
- Credits another outlet 0 of 3
- The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
- Unnamed sources 0 of 3
- The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 14, 23:33 UTC by Fox News, naming its source. First document in the first report, from Fox News (press release).
- Not counted 0
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Left-leaning coverage does not report that the Mint had already stopped making pennies before the House voted. Right-leaning coverage at Fox News says production ended in November 2025, and that the bill would block a later administration from starting it again. The Hill instead says the measure would mark the coin's death "sort of," leaving readers to guess whether Congress was ending the penny or merely blessing a halt already in place.
Left-leaning coverage leads with changing the nickel and how cash is paid. Right-leaning coverage opens on retiring the penny and mentions cheaper nickel metal only as an added provision.
Does rounding every cash sale to five cents quietly transfer money from buyers to merchants, or the other way around?
Bottom line
The Hill never says penny production already ended. Fox News does, dating the stop to November 2025, which turns the House vote into a lock-in rather than a first kill.
The receipts — 6 facts one side's coverage lacks
- The U.S. Mint stopped producing pennies in November 2025
- The House passed the bill in a unanimous vote
- Minting a penny cost more than three times its face value as of 2025
- Treasury estimated immediate annual savings of $56 million
- Cash transactions would be rounded to the nearest five cents
- Existing pennies remain legal tender
The Left View
The Hill frames the vote as a bill that “could change the nickel, how you pay with cash,” putting everyday payment mechanics and nickel composition first. It treats the coin’s end as secondary and incomplete, saying the measure “would also formally mark the death of the penny — sort of.”
The Right View
Fox News frames the unanimous vote as consigning the penny to “the ash heap of history” and “the way of the dodo,” opening that Americans “may soon no longer be able to offer a penny for their thoughts.” It presents the bill as locking in the production halt so a future administration cannot reverse course, stresses the cost-to-value gap and the $56 million savings estimate, credits the McClain–Garcia partnership, and notes the Treasury’s mandated look at disruptions for low-income, older, and unbanked cash users.
Our Take (balanced)
The right’s strongest argument is fiscal: a circulating coin that costs more than three times its face value to produce, with an official $56 million annual savings estimate, plus a statute meant to stop a later administration from restarting minting. The left-leaning source’s strongest framing is that the live issues are cash rounding and a cheaper nickel, with the penny’s “death” only “sort of” because existing coins stay legal tender and how people pay in cash would change. The central unresolved tension is whether this is mainly the retirement of a money-losing denomination or a restructuring of cash transactions whose rounding and nickel effects the savings figure does not settle.
3 sources
More stories
The week's bottom lines, in your inbox
One email a week: the five stories that mattered and what they actually mean. Free.