Reply #16: Get rid of the penny! [View All]

[Penance]

They are worthless. Vending machines and tollbooths don't take them. They are oinly good at making change. Nothing more. A hundred of the things, an entire handful, will get you a can of soda at a bodega. Removing the nickel would be trickier because we'd have to remove quarters as well and go with 20 cent coins as well as bring back a *useful* 50 cent coin. That would be historically painful, and hard on vending machines, but it would be the right way to go. Then again, we haven't been able to bring out a useful $1 coin for over 70 years. Even the disaster of a coin that was the Sacagawea Dollar might have worked if there was legislation to kill the $1 bill.