Retire the penny from mintage.

The simple fact is that, in today's world, the penny no longer fulfills its intended purpose of facilitating commerce. Due to inflation, the penny in 1972 was worth the same as a nickel today, and yet the economy functioned just fine without the modern-value equivalent of a penny. It costs the United States Mint 1.7 cents to make a penny, which means that every year, more than 70 million dollars of federal tax money go to subsidizing the existence of the penny. Many studies have shown that the elimination of the penny wouldn't raise prices & it wouldn't cut charitable contributions; it would, however, save us hundreds of millions of hours per year that are currently wasted fiddling with pennies. It's not a political issue, Mr. President, it's simple math. Please, retire the penny.