When the Trump administration called for the end of penny production earlier this year, experts were confident that the decision would have little short-term impact. Now banks and retailers say a penny shortage has already arrived. The supply problem is twofold: For new pennies, industry groups say production of the coins stopped months ago. And for pennies already in circulation, banks say a new policy from the Federal Reserve has snarled the coins' distribution. "I knew that there would be some chaos coming, but I didn't think that it would come this fast," said Bill Maurer, director of the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion at the University of California, Irvine. This has caused problems for retailers, which need to provide change to customers paying in cash, and, in turn, for the banks that supply them with coins.

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