smc

Say that the price of the item in cents is $x$ (so $x$ is a positive integer as well). The sales tax would then be $\frac{x}{25}$, so $n=\frac{1}{100}\left(x+\frac{x}{25}\right)=\frac{26x}{2500}=\frac{13x}{1250}$. Since $x$ is positive integer, the smallest possible integer value for $n=\frac{13x}{1250}$ occurs when $x=1250$, which gives us the answer $\boxed{13}$.