Let's face it, the penny doesn't buy much.
Penny candy costs a nickel.
You can't melt down your pennies for their copper value. But even the government doesn't like the penny for its own transactions. U.S. military installations abroad have long since eliminated the use of the penny because it costs too much to transport. And, in another display of disrespect for the penny, drivers on the Massachusetts Turnpike aren't allowed to throw pennies into toll baskets. Nationally the Federal Reserve says there isn't a problem.