The penny is worth less than it costs to mint. Pennies are not accepted by most machines stateside and are not used on US military bases overseas.
The US mint website says that about 7 billion coins are produced per year. For the sake of example let's assume 4 of 7 billion is pennies. 4,000,000,000 (40 million dollars) pennies at the rate of 1.7 cents per penny costs 68 million dollars.
28 million dollars is wasted on producing the most useless and frustrating coin in circulation; it needs to stop!
If the US mint stops creating pennies they could remain legal tender while being gradually removed from circulation and melted down. Several countries have done this already without experiencing negative effects.