It is ridiculous to stop minting the penny. The insignificant, basic, tiny penny: not so insignificant. It is the first building block of our monetary system, and has inspired multiple lessons on the virtue of thrift and on the virtue of small things. The sham argument that it costs more to make a penny than it is worth, has a surface value only. Look deeper. A penny is not a single-use object. Indeed, it stays in circulation for years and years, paying for itself and doing the hard work of filling up the odd bits between 95 cents and one dollar. The penny allows merchants to offer attractive prices: $5.99 a pound! So much cheaper than $6 … we know, we are not fooled, but it’s part of our lives. Children through the ages have saved their pennies. Once a penny would buy a piece of penny candy. Now they need to save a lot of pennies for the same piece of candy, but they learn thrift along the way and get a sweet reward at the end. And looking for the odd and rare penny among a day’s coll...