A recent article in the New Yorker disclosed that the penny, thanks to rising costs in copper, costs 1.7 cents to produce. That means that it costs more money to make the penny than the penny is actually worth. With that in mind, it no longer makes sense from a productions standpoint to still make the penny, however from a consumer and retail standpoint it would be difficult for sellers to change their pricing strategies - they seem to be addicted to charging a penny under the dollar amount in order to make things seem cheaper. The average 2.99 product would have to go to either 2.95 or 3.00 - and it is unlikely that they would choose the 2.95 option. Does it really matter? No, but business and resellers would fight hard to keep that penny around so they could continue their largely successful pricing strategy. Aside from the retail aspect, states that have sales tax would have to adapt. For instance, Texas has an 8.25 percent sales tax, that sales tax rate would lend itself to amounts that require the penny. One option is to simply change the value of the penny from one cent to two cents, make it a two cent piece. Stores could probably get by with their prices being at 2.98 and it wouldn’t interfere as much with states ability to have sales tax - registers could simply round up to the next even number in order to deal with the new two cent piece. For instance, that 2.99 product with tax would be 3.23, round that up to 3.24 and the problem of the lack of the single penny is solved.