Cents and sensibility – why Ireland has given up on small change

http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2015/oct/20/cents-and-sensibility-ireland-one-cent-coin

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Name: One cent.

Age: 13 years.

Appearance: Copper-plated.

Like a posh saucepan? Yes. Only a lot cheaper.

How much does one cost? Ooh, about a cent. Unless you’re the Irish central bank.

I’m not. Because each one cent coins cost them about 1.7 cents to mint.

Eh? I know. And they have to mint a lot of them.

Why? Because no one wants to use them.

Eh? Look, one cent is too little to buy anything with it. People don’t even need one-cent coins to make up larger amounts unless they want to give exact change ending in one or three, which they hardly ever do because it’s a right hassle. They can’t be bothered much with two cents either. Instead, they just use bigger coins, collect the change, then lose the coppers down the back of the sofa.

Or break the washing machine with them? Yes, some people also do that. As a result, the central banks have to make one- and two-cent coins extra-fast just to keep them in circulation. There are currently 30,664,437,697 one-cent coins and 23,762,291,214 two-cent coins floating around Europe doing not very much.

How annoying this must be for the people at Ireland’s central bank. Yes. So, now they’re not going to bother either.

Eh? Next Wednesday, Ireland will begin what it calls a voluntary national rounding scheme, whereby everyone gets their physical change to the nearest five cents. So, if the amount ends in one or two, it will come down to zero. If it ends three or four, it will go up to five. Likewise, six and seven drop back to five, and eight and nine go up to the next zero. No one will give you any ones or twos any more, unless you ask for them, although they will remain legal tender.

That was one of those explanations that made everything gradually less clear. Don’t worry, it makes sense when you get used to it. The people of Wexford liked it during a pilot, and other countries, including Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden, already have similar schemes.

Maybe they could give all their old coppers to Greece? Yeah. Maybe.

Do say: “Can’t Ireland’s central bank just buy everyone’s cents back off them?”

Don’t say: “Ah, but how much would they pay?”