it takes only two seconds extra for each transaction that uses a penny, the cost of time wasted in the US is about per person annually, or about one billion dollars for all Americans. Using a different calculation, Robert Whaples, a professor of economics at Wake Forest University, estimates a million annual loss. Additionally, Whaples argues that eliminating the penny would coax people into using one dollar coins. The Federal Reserve says that replacing one-dollar bills with one-dollar coins would save an additional million per year. Limited utility Pennies are not accepted by any vending machines or by most toll booths, and are generally not accepted in bulk. Economist Greg Mankiw says that "The purpose of the monetary system is to facilitate exchange, but ... the penny no longer serves that purpose." Pennies often drop out of circulation (for example, they are stored in jars in a person's home) and due to their low value are sometimes even discarded by consumers. This contributes to the United States Mint needing to produce more pennies than all other coins combined. Prices would not be higher Research by Whaples, using data on nearly 200,000 transactions from a multi-state convenience store chain shows that rounding would have virtually no effect. Consumers would gain a tiny amount about ¢ per transaction. Elimination would not hurt the poor Given that rounding (based on cash transaction totals being rounded up and down to the nearest multiple of five cents) is neutral at the transaction level, and that cash transactions are faster without having to deal with extremely low-value coins, people who disproportionately deal in cash transactions would be helped more by elimination of the penny. To gain consumer favor for reducing the use of the penny it could be legislated (either on a state or federal level) that all cash transactions totals over a nominal amount (say 25 cents) would need to be rounded down to the nearest multiple of five cents. Rounding down cash transaction totals is a win for the merchant too as it encourages cash sales and thereby avoids the electronic payment fee (typically on the order of two percent of the balance). However any savings on this fee must be balanced against the nontrivial costs of handling cash, which is why many merchants encourage electronic payments. Recent popular support According to a national survey conducted in January 2017 by the polling team of