A Winnipeg Free Press story today quotes NDP MP Pat Martin saying we should do away with the penny once and for all.

I’m finding it hard to disagree with him. Things that accept coins no longer accept pennies, whether they’re laundry machines, bus fare boxes, vending machines or video lottery terminals. Businesses grab rolls of them from the bank, they hand them out to us when we pay cash, and the worthless pieces of copper-plated steel stay in our wallets, pockets and coin purses until we can find some way to get rid of them.

It’s just a waste of everyone’s time. As it is when I get pennies back at the cash I dump them into those take-a-penny leave-a-penny things, not because I want to be nice, but because I don’t know what else to do with them.

Elsewhere online: Don’t believe my common-sense argument? Read this fact-filled paper on the subject (PDF).