mint madness

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/10/05/canadian-mint-we-own.html
that's just plain stupid. I sincerely hope that's made up.
Anyway, 2008 marks the 150th year of the penny in Canada, you might have seen the posters at bus stops and such. From wikipedia: "The first Canadian cents were struck in 1858..."
The penny, strike that, the "one cent piece," SHOULD BE ABOLISHED.
Why are people still attached to this shinny copper (coloured) coin? Is it because they think they'll get ripped off by vendors who round up? Well, let them read the following about inflation and Canadian history:

While consumer price data prior to 1914 are unavailable, a broader measure of inflation, the gross domestic product (GDP) deflator, is available back to 1870 (Leacy 1983). While the CPI and GDP
deflator can diverge, they tend to move together over time. Since 1870, with annual GDP inflation averaging 3.6 per cent, the Canadian dollar has lost more than 96 per cent of its value. Again, this is equivalent to saying one Canadian dollar in 1870 would have the purchasing power of roughly $26.70 in today’s money.

So, for those who are attached to the penny, don't understand inflation, and can't do math quickly, let me paraphrase that to say that in today's prices, the smallest coin back in 1870 was worth more than the 25c piece today. Working it the other way around, today's penny was worth about .04cents back then. They obviously didn't feel anything that insignificant was necessary back then, so why should we?
Meanwhile, taxpayers are payrolling the lawyers suing the city of Toronto, and the advertising campaign for the 150th year of the coin. And you're worried about being shortchanged at the till for the rare cash transaction? ha! literally penny-wise pound stupid.