To be real, I think most people keep pennies just out of habit. Like, I always find them in my backpack or in random drawers, but I never actually want to use them. It’s almost like people treat pennies as something to just toss in a jar and forget about.

Part of it is probably the idea that every little bit adds up. My grandma used to say "A penny saved is a penny earned," but honestly none of my friends use them to buy anything. We just throw them in a jar, thinking maybe someday we’ll cash them in, but then we never do.

I’ve noticed that cashiers and stores don’t even want your pennies anymore. They’d rather give you a dollar back than count out four pennies. I think Americans are so used to having loose change that it just feels normal to keep it around, even if it’s useless. So we end up with this giant pile — 114 billion pennies — that nobody really spends. Personally, I think we’d all be better off without them, but old habits die hard.