No Pennies? No Problem. Selma Approves Utility Payment Rounding Policy
Town of Selma Says Goodbye to the Penny
SELMA — The days of digging through cash drawers for a few extra pennies may soon be over at Selma Town Hall.
During its June 4 meeting, the Selma Town Council approved a change to the town’s Customer Service Policy that will allow customer service representatives to round certain cash payments to the nearest nickel when pennies are unavailable.
The policy change comes as communities across the country grapple with a growing shortage of pennies. According to town officials, the U.S. Mint produced its final pennies on Nov. 12, 2025, and no additional pennies are expected to be minted, making it increasingly difficult for staff to maintain an adequate supply of the one-cent coins.
Town employees who accept utility payments and other cash transactions have found themselves facing penny shortages when making change for customers.
Under the newly approved policy, rounding will apply only to cash transactions at the town’s finance office when a customer does not have exact change. Payments will be rounded to the nearest five cents, allowing staff to complete transactions without relying on pennies.
Town officials said the goal is to make the process as fair and consistent as possible for customers.
For most residents, the change will likely amount to only a penny or two on a transaction. Customers paying by check, debit card, credit card or other electronic methods will continue to pay the exact amount due.
While the policy adjustment may seem minor, it reflects a broader change taking place as the penny gradually disappears from circulation.
For generations, the penny has been a staple of pockets, piggy banks and couch cushions. But as supplies become harder to find, Selma is adapting one nickel at a time.
The new policy is expected to help streamline transactions at Town Hall while ensuring customer service representatives can continue serving residents without having to hunt for the last few pennies in the cash drawer.
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So rounding up to shortchange the customer – or rounding down to help the customer?
After all – every little penny matters – right?
What penny shortage? The Mint produced and shipped approximately 3.2 billion pennies in Fiscal Year 2024, and that doesn’t all the billions of pennies that were produced before 2024. So where’d all those pennies go. In a jar at home? In the cupholder of your car? The penny shortage is just a made up farce invented by business to make it easy for them not for the customer. Do you ever notice that most employees can’t properly count change even with computers doing it for them. I gave a kid exact change for an order, he told me I owed 2¢ because the computer rounded it up. If we just got all the pennies out oor storage places and put them back into circulation there would be more pennies than we could use and business wouldn’t be able to claim a penny shortage.
Buy pennies in bulk from Ebay & amazon. Spend them or deposit them in bank account.