Pennies are not accepted as payment on any American military base anywhere in the world—not even in Dallas! Why?

Pennies are not accepted as payment at any fast-food outlets or shops on military bases in Iraq or anywhere else in the world. This is because, many years ago, the Department of Defense decided that they are "too heavy and are not cost-effective to ship," according to Chris Ward, spokesman for the Army and Airforce Exchange Service known as AAFES.

AAFES oversees military retail outlets across the world. According to Ward, even the Dallas-based AAFES, which grants concessions for everything from Subway sandwich outlets to exotic carpet stores, depends on the Department of Defense to ship the coins needed to keep its facilities running. Pennies are just not accepted anywhere on any military base, no matter where in the world it is!

In stead of coins, POGs are used. They are lightweight, round discs worth 5, 10 and 25 cents (no pennies there either) and the change for POGs are rounded to the nearest nickel, except when the last digit ends in one, two eight or nine – then the total is rounded to the nearest dime. Every year brings a different POG series featuring different images on the disc. There are pictures of flying helicopters, soldiers on patrol in Iraq and even Elvis POGs!

(Source)