Those who persist in pining for the penny need to put it all in perspective.

It's simply not worth the bother. The penny's worth has diminished so dramatically over the years, it's practically worthless by historic measures.

If you (or more likely, your grandfather or great grandfather) had put a penny in a drawer in 1914 and you took it out today, it would now buy one 20th of what it would have bought had it been spent instead of being squirrelled away. (That's, of course, discounting the interest of collectors who would undoubtedly pay you a fair penny for that 1914 penny, especially if it's in good condition and not too badly nicked or worn - a perfect penny of that date could net you nearly $100.)

In other words, even that dime in your pocket today is worth about a half what a penny was worth at the start of The First World War.

Today's dollar has the real-time value of a 1914 nickel. Indeed, the penny has become even less than worthless. For some time now, the Royal Canadian Mint has pointed out, it has been costing about 1.6 cents to mint a penny. That means every 50-cent roll of pennies has been costing taxpayers 30 cents more than they're worth to put into circulation.

So let's no longer pine for the penny, shall we? It's gotten long past its best-before date.

In fact, perhaps it's time to nix the nickel, too. Just move the decimal over one place, and the dime can be our new penny-still worth only half what a perfectly sensible and useful penny was only a handful of decades ago. The loonie consequently becomes the new dime, and the ten-spot could be minted as a new silver dollar (actually, more likely made of nickel or some other, cheaper composite metal).

Our money would once again be worth every penny.