On November 12, 2025, The United States Department of The Treasury ended the production of the penny.  This decision is part of an effort to reduce excess government spending.  The cost to manufacture and distribute a single penny is almost four cents.

What does this mean to you?

  • Although pennies will still be legal tender, banks can no longer order pennies from the Federal Reserve.
  • Banks will continue to provide and accept pennies, and you can still use them in everyday transactions.
  • Keep pennies in circulation by cashing them in and using them in cash transactions. This will help banks continue to fill coin orders for local businesses.
    • For your convenience, we have coin counting machines at both of our branch locations – a free service for our customers.
  • The penny phase-out only affects cash transactions. It will not affect your account balance or electronic transactions.
  • Over time, as pennies become scarce, cash transactions will be rounded to the nearest nickel. Standard rounding procedures will round down totals ending in $.01, $.02, $.06, or $.07 and round up totals ending in $.03, $.04, $.08, or $.09.
  • To avoid rounding, we encourage you to use exact change when making a purchase and consider depositing amounts under a full dollar into your account. Open a new savings account for this purpose and watch your change grow!
  • Business customers should start communicating rounding practices to their customers.

Salem Co-operative Bank will continue to provide pennies for cash transactions and coin orders while our supplies last.  Availability may vary by branch.  We are committed to helping our customers navigate this change.   Reach out to us with questions or concerns.   We’re all in this together.

Here for you.  We are you.