Banks and retailers run short on pennies as the US Mint stops making them

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Need to start minting a 2-cent coin. Between a cent and a dime in size, it would take less material ...

than a one-cent, yet carry twice the value, solving the problem with cents being worth less than the material to make them.

Cash registers would have to mingle 1-and 2-cent coins in the same tray, until cents ran out. Rounding to the nearest even number would be a lot easier to handle than rounding to the nearest five cents. It wouldn't be perfect, but we could make do.

Possibly, a coin the same diameter as a cent, but thinner, would work, and could be handled by coin sorting machines. A final separation of one- and two-cent coins could be handled at more centralized locations only, using air-vortex separators to take advantage of the different sail loading of the two types.