The half cent in the United State was done away with in 1857. Though calculating inflation from that year to now is somewhat shaky, it's roughly equal to $0.175

The half cent in the United State was done away with in 1857. Though calculating inflation from that year to now is somewhat shaky, it's roughly equal to $0.175 now and the penny, which then became the smallest unit of currency, was worth about $0.35. Getting rid of everything smaller than a quarter would still give us more fidelity than we had in 1857 when the one cent penny became our smallest coin.