If the penny is vacated and all everything were rounded up to 5 cents, wouldn't the nickle just become, for all intents and purposes, the new penny, doomed to the same date?

@1
You should watch the video.

Thanks to morning vision, at first I thought you were talking about penises, Dan, and his "Cock the Vote" post immediately below [now deleted].

but they are pretty and shiny and the same color as my hair. plus, abe lincoln! yup.

Kill the nickel too. Drop the entire last decimal place, make the dime the smallest denomination.

This guy is pretty impressed with himself. I think he's a dick.

@ But then what to do with quarters? Don't you take my quarters. The values of coins really should be multiples of each other.

Damn our base-10 number system. Base-12 4eva!

When I closed my account with Century Link, I was owed a balance of 0.26. I didn't care, but they sent me a check. Then I cashed that check, much to the amazement of teller and me. Sorry, the penny has to stay. How else could a company clear it's account parables and a bank cash a check properly?

Sorry, rounding is not an option. No matter what they do in Canada.

So what happens to all the pennies that already exist?

His "opportunity cost" analysis could be applied to all cash transactions, and a society without cash is totally not sweet.

I hope the next time he's in London the tube ticketing machine gives him change for his £20 in 2 pence coins.

@7
Well, eventually you'll have spent them all at vending machines and retailers. They'll still have value, they'll just gradually become less common. When businesses stop handing out quarters in change, and start handing out half dollars or dimes instead, they just kind of fade away.

Ignored in this shortsighted argument, of course (and as usual) is the net accounting benefit to the Treasury when you lose your pennies in the couch, or vacuum them up and throw them away, or just keep them sitting in a jar for a decade or two.

And that value goes up even more when we start treating nickles the same way.

Shouting and gesticulating and then cutting all of the "um"s and pauses out of your rant-video doesn't turn you into a person who understands the ins and outs of circulating currency.

Apparently copper is an antimicrobial and kills harmful bacteria, which can stick around on stainless steel faucets and door handles. You could melt them all down to new fixtures.

@13

Another word for "antimicrobial" is "poison".

Copper is no friend to your bloodstream, either, so I'd advise against swallowing any more pennies.