Unfortunately, people like the penny in the US because it has Abe Lincoln on it. He was a Republican, and freed the slaves, so both political parties like him. That makes removing his coin somewhat difficult.

I grew up in Illinois ("Land of Lincoln") and it was one of the only states where you could pay toll with the penny, because Lincoln was such a powerful symbol. I guess that got killed off in 2017, however. (You can't use any coins now, it seems.)

(While researching this comment, I found it hilarious that IDOT had a COVID-19-related unpaid toll relief program, but they accidentally sent people $0.01 invoices because of how they "leveraged an existing system" to generate invoices. Another use for your penny!)