Death of the Penny?

The end of the penny??

Once again there seems to be talk of ditching the one penny piece in Britain. This time it has been sparked off by the Canadian mint ceasing production of their equivalent - the 1 cent. It got me thinking: initially, my reaction to this news was downbeat - after all what numismatic good can come of losing a coin type?
After some thought though, I am coming round to the idea for a couple of reasons - firstly, it is hard to think of anything we can actually buy with them. Logically if the point of currency is to make purchases and if it is impossible to buy anything for a coin anymore then it is redundant surely?
Secondly, I thought about the coin - it is pretty boring really! I know it has a long history and has survived many re-coinage programmes for centuries - but these old coins will still be there! The new ones - well, they are pretty unexciting really!
I'm sure this is going to be a controversial opinion and I would be interested to hear YOUR thoughts on it but to me at least, it kind of makes sense!