In his autobiography, Ben Franklin describes how, as a naïve young bumpkin, he got off the boat in Philadelphia in 1723, scruffy and hungry. He had a few coins in his pocket but he didn’t know what they would buy in the city. When he asked a baker for three pennies worth of bread, to his astonishment, he was given three huge loaves he could barely carry. Franklin was later known for his homey sayings, including, “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

But a penny won’t get you a loaf of bread in 2025. It won’t even get you a mini Tootsie Roll as when I was a kid. In fact, considering that the average American makes $30 an hour—or two cents per second– if you dropped a penny, you would lose money by picking it up.

Since a penny actually costs the US Mint 3.7 cents to produce, losing the Treasury $83 million last year alone, Donald Trump is now calling for the humble copper coin to be discontinued. “Let’s rip the waste out of our great national budget,” he said, “even if it’s a penny at a time!”

That sounds terrific except that this would put pressure on the Mint to create more nickels which, ironically, cost them 13.8 cents to make. This would run $78 million more a year than the cost of keeping pennies. (It’s almost as if we can’t afford money.) But not all our currency loses money. A dime only costs six cents to make, a quarter runs about 15 cents and a one-dollar bill is a bargain at 3.2 cents.

Last year, the Mint produced three billion pennies because, for one reason, many do not remain in circulation. They are stuck in drawers or accumulate in jars or just left on the ground like trash. This is not to suggest that pennies are worthless. At various retail stores, the penny is used to perform an act of kindness when the clerk supplies a cent or two from the coin dish if the customer runs short of exact change. Or, often, the customer contributes spare change to the dish to be donated for the convenience of other customers.

Spare change can add up to real help for those in need as coins accumulate in charity boxes on retail counters. The organization My Charity Boxes reports that one such box can bring in $40-$50 a week. Ten boxes spread around town can make around $30,000 a year, used to feed hungry children or fund medical research. Eliminating the penny in the misplaced expectation of reducing the federal budget could hurt those who have little other means of support.

Brazil, Australia and Canada are among those countries that have discontinued their one and two-cent coins. The American penny has been around for 233 years. It’s had a good run. Our beloved penny deserves a proper send-off this year. I’m sure it’s no disrespect that National One Cent Day falls on the same day as April Fool’s Day.