2y ago

1 and 2 cent pieces, what do you think about removing them?

They're not worth anything, never were but even less through the years with inflation.

If a store wants to sell something for 99 cent, they can either just take 1€ or 95 cent.

Maybe even 5 cent pieces? But that would be a bit radical.

I am a bit annoyed that easy ideas like this are never discussed in politics, or wherever. It would make our lives just a little bit easier, and having them achieves NOTHING.

53 comments

There are European countries that have no 1 and 2c coins (Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Finland). The prices are the same, when you buy something the sum is simply rounded up to the next 5 cents.
Works fine.
- Here in NL the amount gets rounded to the nearest multiple of five, so for 1.92 you have to pay 1.90 in cash and 1.93 will become 1.95. This so on average you are not overpaying. Digital payments are always exact.

Children in elementary schools use coins as an example to learn calculating. They need the 1 cent coins. Is nobody here thinking about the children?
- Well, they sure can learn with something else.

In Canada we've removed them and I'm just left wondering why we have 5 and 10 cent pieces now. They're also absolutely useless.

croatian here, we recently, in january of this year, switched to euro. im still mindblown by how much 1 cent is (like, 7.5 times more than 1 lipa was). and since i already carry 10 times more coins now then when i did when we used kunas, i really dont mind the 1 and 2 cent coins. in fact, a lot of things here cost x.x3 or x.x7 €, so its quite convenient to have some cents in your wallet
- Damn that's interesting. In Germany you can maybe get something for 10 cent somewhere, but everything else is at least 20 or 50 cent ^^

I am all for it. Though here in Germany it would probably give quite a number of people a heart attack not being able to pay an exact amount to the cent.
- I feel called out.
  No, seriously. Last season I bought some plums from my Turkish greengrocer, he put them on the scales which said 1.01 Euro which he commented with "one Euro". I gave him 1.01 Euro, and got a "can you believe those Almans" look.
- They could by paying with card.
  
  They could pay with card, but it's something special here with many of the old folks and cash. Part of the ancient shopping ritual to put out the small coins and delay the queue as long as possible. Why? No idea, apart from "Das haben wir schon immer so gemacht!" (We always did it like this)

What I'm questioning myself is If we would remove the 1 and 2 cent pieces Would they in the future increase in value because of them being rare.
- Nah, the 1 and 2 cent pieces of the currency Germany had before the Euro isn't worth shit. I bet that people still find a bunch of them in couches etc ^^

I just put 1,2 and 5 cents in my kid's piggybank instead of carrying em around.
- your poor kid xD
  
  They would be even poorer if I wouldn't do it

Let's do it like Venezuela and cut away a few zeros everywhere to make the 1 and 2 cents more relevant again. :)
11 € become 11 cents... Now, the one cent matters again... No one will give it away like it's worth nothing 😃

fuck inflation

The problem gets worse if you realize that the material value of the copper is greater than the coin value itself with 1 cent.
- They're not made from copper in Europe though.
  
  I actually looked it up. They are 5,65% copper, the rest ist iron. But because they are not 100% copper, they are less valuable then 1 cent. https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurom%C3%BCnzen

As a swiss person, I get surprised every time the price doesn't automatically round to the next multiple of 5 cents when I'm in the EU. So yes, get rid of them.
- As a swiss, you're used to find it the first prices in Europe, not you don't think about other economies.
  There's a comment in here from someone whose country recently switched to euros, and many small items there cost under 10 cents. Rounding down would make them free, rounding up doubles their price...
  The measure is reasonable if the local economy is suited - Belgium and the Netherlands have been rounding bills for a good while now, but it's not something that should be pushed from the European level.
  Not that I said rounding bills - individual items are stille priced to the cent. When paying by card, you pay the exact total, but when paying cash it gets rounded to the nearest 5 cent.

Doesn't make sense. You could just throw away all 1 and 2 cents for yourself and round everything up if you really wish not having to worry about them anymore. Problem solved :)

Yep, I'm a big fan of the approach of getting rid of smaller coins and just rounding at the register. The Netherlands already do this and I don't think anyone there misses the small coins.
- Absolutely! I carry only a small wallet and hate coins in general. Totally could pass on 1 and 5 Cent coins. Throw them in a box at home (even 10 Cent coins) and have no idea on what to do with them. Brought them to a store once, but they would take 10% and you could only use the money in the store. Found a bank where you can bring them in for 5%, but you would have to roll them up yourself (definitely not gonna do their work and still give them 5%). Maybe I will put it in a chest and bury it somewhere in the forest near a playground so kids can go treasure hunting :D
  
  making it a kid's game is a good idea, but you could also try to go around local shops and ask if they are low on coins, they'd probably give you 1 to 1

Aren't there already some Euro-Countries that abolished 1 and 2 cent coins?
- Just looked it up: Finland, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Ireland.
  
  I haven't seen them a lot lately in Austria...
  
  what happens if you pay 5 Cents with 5x1 cent from other countries in those countries?

Good riddance! I never use them, collect them and bring them to one of the few banks that still accept coins.
- I only use them when I empty my wallet in a self checkout to get rid of them

I am in favour. But let's go ever further and get rid of cash entirely.
- Privacy and transactions without internet connection?
  
  GNU Taler

what? so if my bill is 1,96 euro i should pay 2 euro and the store will get the 4 cent? no way. that sounds not like much but its like per custumer per day lot. i even hate it that on gas stations there is a .cent. for example gas 1 euro 59,9 cent. what is this bullshit? just money making for the gas stations and oil companys.
- Ah those arguments have already been done to death in the countries that did implement it. It really doesn't change a thing in the grand scheme of things. Even the shops were worried that they'd lose money on it, so no, it's not a money making scheme, it averages out perfectly fine.
- I think the idea is that on the other hand the store will only get 2€ if the bill is 2,04€. On average there shouldn't be any difference for both sides. About the gas stations I agree 100%.
  
  The Stores will all do 1,96 then and no store will do 2,04 since that would make a loss on their side.

Yes, please remove 1, 2 and 5 cent coins. I'd argue for also removing 10 and 20 cent. How do you get rid of them? I feel ridiculous paying with them. So I just don't.

53 comments