THE CENTRAL BANK is urging shoppers to use their one and two cent coins this Christmas.
Since the introduction of the euro, the Central Bank has issued over 2 billion copper coins totalling around €35 million. That is three times the European average per head of population.
However, it is constantly having to reissue the coins because they go out of circulation so quickly: people generally don’t use them and instead consign them to jars and money boxes in their homes.
This means shops need to constantly refresh their supplies for change, which adds an unnecessary cost to Ireland’s cash cycle.
The Central Bank is advising consumers that if this trend continues it will be difficult to keep up with the demand.
It is asking consumers to find the 1 cent and 2 cent coins they may have stored at home and put them back into circulation, either by spending them or by giving them to a charity this Christmas.
The county of Wexford was part of a pilot scheme aimed at eliminating the coins by rounding prices up or down to the nearest five cent. Head of the National Payments Plan Ronnie O’Toole said earlier this year that the county had given a “resounding yes” to the plan.
The average cost of producing the coins exceeds their face value, with a 1c coin costing approximately 1.3c to mint. There are also significant costs associated with the transport and storage of the coins in the economy.
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