A rationalist email: “I agree with Safire. Keeping the penny around today makes as much sense as using a coin worth one-thousandth of a dollar 100 years ago. It would make our coin system much simpler to have two coins only: the dime, which would still be worth one-tenth of a dollar and a half dollar coin (the size of a quarter). No more pennies, nickels, or quarters. Everything would round to a tenth of a dollar instead of a hundredth. What costs less than 10 cents these days that could not be sold as two for a dime?”