Inflation has reduced the worth of the penny to less of what the tangible penny is actually worth. When people started melting pennies to make a profit, the US gov't, instead of doing the logical thing and killing it, made it illegal to melt it down and ignored the problem. Killing the penny is not unprecedented; USA used to have the half-penny, but it was killed when it became roughly the worth of today's dime; no economic instability occurred. New Zealand, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, and Canada have all recently killed their version of the penny and prices just rounded to the nearest 5 cents. Canada is now saving roughly $11 million annually because of this. We would save substantially more. Also, President Lincoln is already on the $5 bill, so it wouldn't disrespect him.
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