I’m going to be upfront with my allegiances here dear readers, I think we should get rid of the penny. Any purpose it may have once served has since long, long passed. I mean really, let’s think about this for a moment. What can you really do with a penny? They don’t work in vending machines or parking meters, you can’t pay rent with them, they can’t buy anything by themselves (no product sells for a penny), and even if you have a whole bucket full of them, good luck finding a place that’ll take them. Simply put, they’re worthless. No wait, I got that wrong. They’re worse than worthless!

Do you know how much it costs to mint a penny? 1.7 cents. ALMOST TWICE THE “WORTH” OF THE PENNY ITSELF. That means we are losing taxpayer money every time we mint a new penny! (Even worse though is the nickel, which we should also get rid of as it costs nine cents to mint!)

I understand that once upon a time a penny may have made cents (sorry, sorry) — a penny in 1972 was worth what a nickel is today, and a penny in 1850 was worth what today’s quarter is — but come on now. It’s time for change, folks. Can’t we just give Abe a new coin (or dollar bill) and be done with it?

Join the revolution! What say you?