It’s not necessarily a shortage, as there are about 250 billion pennies in circulation, however, there have been “localized supply issues,” according to the American Banking Association. That’s because about one-third of the about 165 Federal Reserve coin terminal facilities – where coins are distributed and deposited – have stopped penny transactions, the ABA said. The “supply issues” are likely to occur in parts of the country where those terminals have stopped circulating pennies. This creates “critical choke points in the coin distribution system around the country,” said Bill Maurer, dean of the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, and director of UCI’s Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion. “By ceasing deposit acceptance at coin terminals, the Fed is gumming up the whole distribution system for pennies, resulting in regional shortages and pushing banks to deposit pennies further away, which will accelerate their removal from parts of the country,” Maurer told USA TODAY. The “chaotic implementation of the discontinuation of the penny” is hurting “mostly low-income Americans and the businesses they support” with rural banks and citizens those most likely affected,” he said. “It’s playing out way worse than expected, and we’re seeing these penny shortages roll out across the country,” Maurer said. “This is a case of charging ahead to make a change to the payments infrastructures supporting our economy and livelihoods without careful forethought into how it would all play out, and the legal and operational considerations that should have been dealt with ahead of time.”

For the full story, please visit https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/10/23/penny-shortages-kwik-trip-home-depot/86839080007/.