The penny and nickel cost more to manufacture than their face value. According to the Washington Post we lost over $100 million last year on pennies and nickels (source: http://goo.gl/nVT7hy).
Additionally making change down to the penny adds countless labor-hours which increases the price of all the goods and services in the United States.
Begin phasing out currency that is worth less than its face value and bringing our monetary system in line with costs of goods and services. For example, nothing can be purchased with a penny and it will not work in any vending machine.
A suggestion is to remove the penny from circulation immediately and simultaneously remove the dollar bill from circulation (using only dollar coins). Then remove the nickel at a later date and add a $2 coin.