The mint produces billions of pennies per at a cost of 1.25 cents each. Years of debate on getting rid of the penny have failed accomplish anything.
Trillions of pennies are sitting in drawers, jugs and piggy banks and no one pays any attention to them, because it is not worth their time
Why not give people an incentive to put them back in circulation by having federal reserve banks redeem them for 1.2 cents each. Saving money for the Mint, both from production and transport.