Goodbye to the penny?

I missed this. Apparently Congress is going to make the penny defunct. The rationale is that it is such a worthless unit that it is not worth the taxpayers' money to mint it. I guess Congress needs that extra cash for its members' annual pay raises and we know how much they deserve it! Regardless, there is a national movement afoot to save this historic fixture of American life. See the great Virgin Mobile ad in the NYT today on the "Save the Penny Drive". Buried in it amongst the patriotic and nostalgic mumbo jumbo is an offer to "penny text". Even the font has a wee bit of ye olde Williamsburg look. Finally, an ad where the text is more powerful than the picture! How retro. How perfect.