This USA Today op-ed makes the case against the penny. I tend to be persuaded. Are there any good non-sentimental reasons for keeping it?

UPDATE: E-mail: Rich, Last year I visited my brother, who’s in the Air Force, in Germany. On the base shops, the penny isn’t used. The reason being, it would cost too much to fly them overseas. The way it worked was if you made your purchase in cash, the transaction got rounded up or down to the nearest nickel. If you used a credit or debit card, there was no rounding. It didn’t seem to be an issue over there so I don’t see why we can’t do the same thing here. Another e-mail: Sir, I am in favor of either getting rid of the penny altogether, or forcing ALL machines to take them. Since parking meters and vending machines won’t take them, they are completely useless. I have a plastic Eiffel Tower (it held a daiquiri in Vegas) that is half full of pennies. There is absolutely nothing you can do with them except to collect them for awhile and then exchange them at the bank. But it sure would be really helpful if parking meters would take them… Since that is never going to happen, let’s ditch the penny.