...or when divided by the population (currently 342 million), under 2 cents per person.

In the US attention has now turned to the nickel, which has a face value of five cents but costs nearly 14 cents to produce. Retiring that coin would have a far bigger impact on shoppers, costing consumers some $55m per year, according to the Richmond Fed study.

...or about $0.16/person.

In exchange, everyone gets to:

• Carry around less change
• Spend less time waiting for change or behind people getting change at the register
• Pay for things with coins easier

However, nickels only result in an annual loss of about $17.7m/year right now, so economically it would still be a net-loss, dollar-value wise.