Coppers

[miser]

Would it not be sensible to withdraw 1p and 2p coins? It would mean that businesses accepting cash payment would have to adjust their prices but these coins really are a nuisance. Some people would claim that it would be inflationary but compared with recent price rises the effect would be insignificant.

[Khandro]

I thought this was going to be asking what happened to Retrocop - what did happen btw ?

I put all my small copper coins in a wooden bowl in my hall and whenever I go to my chemist's shop I give them to him for a charity box he has on the counter.

[newmodarmy]

I'd have agreed 5 years ago but nownever use cash

[barry1010]

I don't see why not.  Goods always seemed to be priced at £x.x5, 9 or 0.  If I buy a single item it would be rounded up at most by 1p.  If I bought three items that most I would lose would be 2 or 3p.

The prices of goods need not be rounded up or down, just the total of the shopping to the nearest 0 or 5. 

[davebro3]

Probably would be sensible but no doubt there would be anguished wails from traditionalists.

 

[Hymie]

Such a system seems to work well in Australia where individual items are prices in cents, but the final bill is either rounded up or down to the nearest 5₵.

But no doubt some retailers would take advantage of the system and round all prices up to the nearest 5p.

[barry1010]

The traditionalists would have no cause for complaint.  In my lifetime the farthing and half-penny were scrapped before decimilisation.

Since we went decimal, we've lost the half pence, threepence, sixpence,  half-crown and crown.  The florin lives on as a 10p coin and the shilling is 5p.

[Hymie]

I recall sometime ago it was estimated that such a move would add a one off increase of around 1% to annual inflation.

[vulcan42]

I have noticed recently that garages, if the petrol comes to say, £40-01, they now ask for the penny, so they wouldn't these coins to disappear.

[vulcan42]

wouldn't want

[barry1010]

Probably because the staff are responsible if the till doesn't balance at the end of the shift.

[davebro3]

Some garages had a saucer of coppers so you could leave or take whatever you needed to match the bill. It's not easy to stop the pump at an exact whole number of £.

[davebro3]

I hardly ever use ANY cash these days, coins or notes  - probably only at the car wash which is £9.

[Maydup]

What would be the advantage of withdrawing these coins?

I rarely use cash myself but  kids enjoy the 2p arcades at the seaside!

[barry1010]

The arcades could exchange tokens for cash

[barry1010]

It would save a lot of money in the production costs

[davebro3]

There was a clip I saw on TV - a guy on Weston? pier arcade sometimes spends all day bagging up coins & presumably banking them. If they used tokens bought with 50p pieces or notes it would be a lot less work?

[Maydup]

The arcades would have to invest in new machines and tokens. For what benefit?
 

[davebro3]

they could use 2p coins as tokens if they were no longer legal currency😁

[ubasses]

One theory I read was that charities would lose out.  I am sure that many people like me, on the odd occassion I use cash, always put the coppers in the collection box.

[vulcan42]

It will be interesting to know how many 2 pence coins will be minted this year, when they were first minted in 1971 they produced 1,454,856,250!