Penny production ends: How metro Atlanta businesses are preparing for life without the 1-cent coin

The penny is coming to the end of the line.

The U.S. Mint stopped producing the copper-colored coin last year, citing the fact that it cost nearly 4 cents to manufacture a single penny. The first one-cent coin was minted in 1793, making the penny a fixture of the U.S. monetary system for more than 230 years. Now, metro Atlanta businesses are preparing for the change.  

CBS News Atlanta spoke with customers and the general manager of Atlanta's iconic Thumbs Up Diner, which has served the Edgewood neighborhood for more than 26 years. It's one of the places where customers still regularly pay with cash.  

"We appreciate that people still not only pay in cash, but tip in cash as well. The servers appreciate that," General Manager Kavinique Williams said.  

Longtime customer Charles McPherson said he plans to keep using cash.

"I pay in cash, and I tip in cash," McPherson said.  

Not everyone is ready to say goodbye to the penny.

"I don't get it. I don't like it," customer Jan Chamblin said. "The penny is very convenient. I know they'll round up or round down, but it's a useful coin. I don't know why they didn't find a way to manufacture it at a cheaper cost."  

Chamblin said she doesn't mind when purchases are rounded down, but she doesn't like the idea of paying more when totals are rounded up.  

For cash transactions, the U.S. Department of the Treasury says businesses will round the final purchase total to the nearest nickel. Totals ending in 1, 2, 6 or 7 cents will round down, while totals ending in 3, 4, 8 or 9 cents will round up. Transactions ending in 0 or 5 cents will remain unchanged.  

Although the penny officially went out of production July 1, Williams said Thumbs Up Diner has no plans to stop accepting cash.  

The Treasury Department estimates about 114 billion pennies remain in circulation nationwide. Consumers who want to cash in their pennies can continue using coin-counting machines or exchange them at participating banks while the coins remain legal tender.