Today a penny is relatively worthless. It costs more money to make a penny than it is actually worth. President Obama recently asked congress to approve changing the material used to make a penny and a nickel to a less expensive material. The real proposal should be to rid the country of the penny all together.

It costs 2.4 cents to make a mint penny. The two major reasons for keeping the penny are sentimentality and the fear of inflation, since prices would have to round to the nearest nickel.

In addition, there is the argument that it cost more to make a nickel than it does to make a penny and, by taking away the penny, more nickels would have to be made. Many households have pennies stowed away in jars or under couches; these coins are not used every day and are a loss of money.

The penny has become a useless coin because it cannot be used in vending machines or toll booths, and at most establishments, pennies are not accepted in large quantities. Pennies are also the one coin found lying around the streets the most because no one gets upset when they lose a few pennies.

If it costs the country 2.4 cents to mint a coin and 7.4 billion pennies are made per year, just imagine how much we can save as taxpayers if we just stop making them.

We have moved into a credit/debit card society and having bills, let alone pennies, is a rarity. We should embrace the couple of cents per day that we would be losing if we eliminated the penny, and reap the long-term benefits we would be gaining as taxpayers.