The days of the copper maple leaf have come to an end. The Royal Canadian Mint has officially ended its distribution of the penny today. The move makes a lot of sense because it actually costed the government 1.6 cents to make each penny. Discontinuing the one cent piece will save the government approximately 11 million of our tax dollars each year. The Federal Government has also sent instructions to store owners to start rounding prices up or down to the nearest nickel for cash transactions  while electronic purchases (such as debit and credit) will be billed to the nearest cent. Google Canada has paid homage to the penny today on its homepage.