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Here's One Reason to Work With Thanos

The penny ended September 28, 2026. Cash now rounds to the nearest nickel. So why does your store still charge $129.99? Details are the job.

· 3 min read

A blank copper penny dissolving into glowing particles beside a neat row of blank silver coins on a dark reflective surface.
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Open your own store and read me a price

This one is for e-commerce owners only. Open your store, the one you pay a digital marketing agency hundreds or thousands of dollars to run, and read me one of your prices.

If it ends in .99, keep reading. You are about to learn whether your agency is paying attention.

The penny died on September 28, 2026

On September 28, 2026, the U.S. Senate passed the Common Cents Act, formally ending penny production for general circulation. The Mint had already struck its final circulating penny on November 12, 2025. Each one cost 3.69 cents to make.

Your pennies are still legal tender. But no new ones are entering the economy, and cash transactions now round to the nearest nickel.

  • Final circulating penny struck: November 12, 2025, Philadelphia Mint.
  • Cost to make one penny in 2024: 3.69 cents.
  • Common Cents Act approved by the Senate: September 28, 2026.

Your cash customers can only pay in nickels now

Here is the part that matters: with no pennies in circulation, a customer paying cash can only hand you 5-cent denominations. Every price that does not end in 0 or 5 is a price your cash customers literally cannot pay.

So $489.99 has to become $489.95 or a flat $490. The .99 is not a pricing strategy anymore. It is a fiction. At the register it rounds. Online, cards still charge to the exact cent, which means your site shows a price built on a coin your customers can never get back as change.

Ask your agency the obvious question

Why hasn't your digital marketing agency updated $489.99 to $489.95 or $490, or $129.99 to $130 or $129? The silence is the answer: they are not watching the world your customers actually pay in.

A price tag is a detail, and details are the entire job. That is what you pay them for: noticing the law changed before your customers have to do the rounding in their heads.

What we do at Thanos

We go one step further. We tell every e-commerce customer up front: no dot-pennies on your website, period. If your product costs $80.59, we put $80.60. Take it or leave it.

Clean prices. Honest math. Your customers see a number they can actually pay, and your brand looks like it lives in the present.

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