As Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father, postmaster, inventor and diplomat, once said, "A penny saved is a penny earned."  From the time of the founding of the United States in 1789 to the present, no U.S coin has been minted as much as the penny. Sure the penny might seem antique as it currently costs more to produce than it's actually worth, but we Americans still use it. Now, why do we still use that "worthless  copper- plated nuisance? The idea behind the penny wasn't just so ordinary citizens could pay for items whose price didn't end with a 5 or a 0. No, the creators wanted a coin whose monetary value was minuscule compared to the historical and social value. Time and again, the penny has delivered these qualities to an American public who have accepted them with open arms. Now is not the time to ban a coin that has had such a profound impact on society, history and the economy. It's been well over 200 years since the penny was first minted and in that time, the penny has deeply ingrained itself in our everyday lives. As mentioned in Source C, an opinion piece by William Safire for the New York Times, pennies are so well entrenched in our society that many convenience stores offer "penny cups , where customers drop their extra change. Thus, the cashier saves time and the costumer saves money that would have otherwise gone towards buying a new pair of jeans. The fact that stores even have places to keep spare change proves that Americans have largely accepted that the penny will probably remain in circulation for a while. Now, their acceptance is hardly because the government told Americans to use the coin and most Americans do whatever the government tells them to do. In fact, we decided to accept the coin out of our own free will, in one of the few methods in our country that can ruin both Presidents and Congressmen alike: Opinion Polls. Source E, a poll by the renowned Harris group, an overwhelming 60% of Americans oppose abolishing the penny. Any member of Congress even thinking about introducing legislation to ban the penny had better listen to the will of the majority, or he or she would be going against the principles of democracy. The cost of angering the public is too high a cost to pay for discouraging the use of the penny.