When Atlantic writer Katie Weaver heard earlier this month that the U.S. Treasury would no longer be minting pennies, she had a very personal reaction to the news.

At first I was like, did I... Oh no, did I do that?

Did I kill the penny?

Honestly, I think I did.

I'm pretty sure I did.

Katie thinks she might be to blame for this turn of events.

Because about a year ago, she wrote a big piece,

essentially arguing that the penny should die.

If you asked me today, would you like a penny?

Honestly, I'm so cheap, I would probably say I'll take it.

But I don't need it.

I did just walking my dog a couple days ago, I stopped to pick up a penny and my husband was like,

what are you doing?

The penny seems to infuriate you.

I was going to say, they're a lovely color.

That's like one of those compliments you give when you're like, I secretly hate this.

Well, you know, it's just that we really don't use or in most senses need them

anymore. Can you just explain why? You call it your reasoning the perpetual penny paradox.

Yes. So there were many good reasons to get rid of it. The perpetual penny paradox. Yes. So there were many good reasons to get rid of it. The perpetual a penny

paradox is maybe the most infuriating of any of the reasons, but basically it's that the pennies that

the mint would produce every year, which was many, many, many pennies. I think it was like billions of

pennies a year, would be given out many, many pennies. I think it was like billions of pennies a year,

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