It is time for monetary reform, period. The American deficit problem must be fixed. An obvious first step is to abolish the penny.
Here are the facts:
It costs 2.1¢ to make a penny.
That loses the government $144 million a year.
Because of opportunity costs (basically the cost of wasted time) the economy loses $1 billion a year from pennies. (Estimated by economist Greg Mankiw)
Of course we must not have infinite divisions of the dollar. In 1857, we abolished the half penny, even though it had the purchasing power of today's dime.
Lastly, the penny is not money. Money is what humans use to facilitate trade. Since pennies can be used almost nowhere we use coins (parking meters, vending machines, etc.) it does not facilitate trade.
We must abolish the zinc disk of inefficiency.