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26th Apr 2013

Keeping you Abreast: Is Ireland getting rid of the 1c and 2c coins?

According to new recommendations from the Central Bank, Ireland should scrap the 1c and 2c coins along with cheques if we want to save €1bn. But why?

JOE

According to new recommendations from the Central Bank, Ireland should scrap the 1c and 2c coins along with cheques if we want to save €1bn. But why?

There’s been a lot of talk this week about the 1c and 2c coins and how they’re basically just weighing us down, so JOE’s here to shine some light on the matter. You’re welcome.

It all stems from recommendations from the National Payments Plan (NPP) published by the Central Bank this week and it had a few interesting things to say about how we currently run things here in Ireland.

The report claims that if the recommendations are implemented then they could net €1bn for the Irish economy. However, this would mean getting rid of the smaller coins for good, so there will be no chance of finding a day’s worth of ‘good luck’ on the ground in the future.

In fairness, it’s not the craziest idea that’s even been thrown around, and plenty of other European countries have already gotten rid of the smaller coins, including the Netherlands and Finland. Instead, they use a system called the ‘rounding rule’.

This means that if your can of Coke costs 99c then the cashier rounds it up to €1, but if it costs 92c then the cashier rounds it down to 90c. Simples.

But how are they going to implement such a system across the whole of Ireland? Will it be done in one fell swoop? Well, the answer to that is plain and simply, no.

The NPP recommends that the system should be trialled in a medium sized Irish town so that we can get a feel for the new rounding system, so both Bray and Drogheda are in the running to be chosen for the trial.

Ronnie O’Toole, project manager of the NPP said, “Customers tend to hang on to their small change so it doesn’t circulate. A one-cent coin costs two cent to mint due to the rising cost in metal. They don’t buy anything as no goods or services are priced at this level and very few machines accept them.”

Getting rid of the 1c and 2c coins might not be a bad idea after all, especially as it costs 2c to mint a 1c coin. Where’s the logic in that? We think we’d be happy enough waving goodbye to the smaller coins, so we’ll just have to wait and see what the lads in government do next.

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