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Knock, knock, knock - penny?

There is something terribly romantic about pennies. Yes - they are a pain and yes, they are heavy in your pocket and we always seem to have too many of them in our wallet. But the the point remains that pennies have a romantic quality.

There is something terribly romantic about pennies.

Yes - they are a pain and yes, they are heavy in your pocket and we always seem to have too many of them in our wallet.

But the the point remains that pennies have a romantic quality.

There is nothing better than being able to say that you've thrown a penny backwards into the Trevi Fountain, and that as you walked away, the tiniest part of you believed that whatever you wished for would come true.

Now they are going away and pennies will be a thing of a the past. In years, we will have to explain to our children that once there was a coin worth only one cent and yet it cost more than that to produce.

They won't understand that, in fact - it's not clear that anyone understands that crazy logic.

If we never had pennies, then what would we have called the scary clown in It - Nicklewise? That's not nearly as scary as Pennywise.

"See a nickel, pick it up..." Nothing rhymes will that? Now what are we supposed to do?

Do we pick it up or not?

We don't know the consequences either way. This decision could change a lot of things, it's like the butterfly effect, but even more severe with an economic impact to boot.

As of Feb. 4, the penny will be no more.

The official name of the penny is the one cent piece, but who has time for that when you are scrounging in the bottom of your purse so you can get enough for the pack of gum you so desperately need. Originally, the penny was a two-cent coin. Confusing, right?

When they went the way of the dodo bird (soon to be the way of the penny), penny took over as the new one-cent coin's name.

It was likely a name adopted from the British monetary system, because up until 1858 Canada used their system, complete with pounds, shillings and pence.

The first Canadian cent was struck in 1858 and was one-inch is diameter. It was designed that way to be a measuring tool if you were in a pinch. See, pennies can be handy.

In March of 2012, the federal government announced pennies would cease to be in production as of fall 2012 (it was later pushed back to Feb. 2013).

The main reason behind the change is a century of inflation had eroded the value and usefullness of the one-cent piece.

In 2007, the Canadian mint produced 816 million pennies a year, which equals 25 pennies per Canadian. In 2011, the mint produced 1.1 billion pennies as a result of people hoarding them or just not using them as much as they used too.

We aren't the first country to give the penny the death knell, and we surely won't be the last. Norway, New Zealand and Australia have also done away with them. Those clever Aussies took it one step further and used the melted down pennies to make their Olympic bronze medals for the Sydney Games.

So, that means that in a few short weeks, we will have to think five times as much when someone asks: "Nickel for your thoughts." It just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Will we now be expected to put "our dime in" as opposed to our two cents?

Not to mention how stupid it sounds to say it will cost you a pretty nickel.

Of course, life will go on and it's probably a blessing in disguise.

No longer will anyone of us be stuck behind the old lady who insists on paying for her $10 of groceries in pennies (true story) and women can rejoice that at least some of our back pain will be lessened by the elimination of the little bronze guys in our pocketbooks.

Thanks for all you've done, penny, for putting a smile on our faces when we pick you up on the curb, and for reminding us that no matter how small, everything matters.