If you didn't take them out of circulation, what would you do with them? Stores, banks, and people would be stuck with their piles of pennies. You'd end up wi

If you didn't take them out of circulation, what would you do with them? Stores, banks, and people would be stuck with their piles of pennies. You'd end up with a situation like US dollar coins: Half-hearted attempts means nobody really bothers to switch. If every cash register in the country, and every person's pocket still has pennies in it, would people really start doing the five cent rounding? It would be a pretty poor currency user experience.