There’s a debate at the WSJ online about the pros and cons to keeping the penny. My view is that we should toss the penny and the nickel altogether. The reason is simple: today’s dime has the buying power of a penny circa 1946 in both Canada and the US. I defy you to go to any store, anywhere, armed only with 9 cents and with the challenge of buying something. Anything.
If it’s necessary, we can still quote prices in cents for certain items: gasoline prices are already quoted up to one-tenth of a penny, even without a $0.001 coin.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
Pennysaurus
Picture via Tim Reid, Research in Motion.
The copper penny is an outmoded and unusable dinosaur, writes Stephen Gordon:
“My view is that we should toss the penny and the nickel altogether. The reason is simple: today’s dime has the buying power of a …
That very quality of pennies – that they don’t feel like any worth – can make them useful for fundraising. Like # 40 on this list. I’m not sure if that’s reason enough to justify keeping them around, but the non-profit sector seems to like them.
I haven’t really thought about the nickel, so I’ll pretend we’re talking about only pennies here.
I think banning them is the wrong approach. I favor having the government simply stop minting them,and allowing them to still be legal tender, but not requiring either individuals or institutions to actually pay to the final $0.01 or $0.02. They may round off or pay accoriding to their proclivities, and according to what they actually have pennies to pay for.
My most likely scenario is that all stores will round off for cash transactions, but allow customers to pay in full if they choose. Additionally all electronic transactions (credit cards, debit cards, checks, bank interest) will be denominated in hundredths of a dollar as usual, and the only time this becomes a “problem” is when you close out your bank account and demand cash instead of a check, when the same rounding ought to occur, although if the bank has a couple of pennies they “ought” to pay in full.
I also suspect that banks will try to reserve their pennies for little old ladies that like the option to pay in full (at stores) when it is in their favor to do so. I also suspect they won’t have anyone else who actually wants any pennies that come their way.
happyjuggler0: pretty much what Australia did in phasing out 1c and 2c coins, except they started taking them out of circulation as well. Made it easier to do the rounding off thing, else the customer can choose not to have a penny available if purhcase price is going to be rounded down, and to have it available when it’s otherwise rounded up.