CGP Grey has an excellent youtube video on the whole issue for the US. The US currently makes 4 billion 1 cent coins annually. And they have already been abolished at US military overseas bases.
(Come to think of it, doesn't the US military use a lot more metric system than the general population. If so, this would be a good reason to increase the military since it would appear to be the only way progress happens!)
The US military also uses a 24-hour clock (2000 hours instead of 8:00 PM) and consistent little-endian date formats (29 March 2012 instead of March 29 2012).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5UT04p5f7U
(Come to think of it, doesn't the US military use a lot more metric system than the general population. If so, this would be a good reason to increase the military since it would appear to be the only way progress happens!)