People who live in the euro zone, do you think we should get rid of the 1c & 2c coins?

Question

People who live in the euro zone, do you think we should get rid of the 1c & 2c coins?

Answer 1

I always feel slightly embarrassed looking in my purse for 2c or 1c.  So my purse is full of these tiny copper coins.  Every now and then I empty them all out into a charity tin and then feel mean because its only coppers, so I put a nearly all my change in.

I remember being in New Zealand 10 years ago and they did not have 1c or 2c coins either, they rounded everything up or down to the nearest 5c, which to me made a lot of sense even then.  So yes, I think Ireland should follow the Netherlands lead and ditch the shrapnel.

Answer 2

I have talked about the small coins with people in Slovakia, who will start having the Euro in January.

For them the smallest coin will be several times the value of the smallest coin now.

Lets leave the 0.01 and 0.02 and just use them as it comes.

I also live in the Netherlands, I never use the small ones except for the post office and one other store I shop.

I just collect them in a pocket till I have 0.05 and use that instead of a single coin then.

But for the countries where the average wages will be something in the range of 300 Euro a month, 0.05 is a lot of money, specially if it happens a few times a day.

In the Dutch supermarkets they allow for a cash difference of less than 5 Euro on a whole day, but the days with more than 1 Euro cash difference are rare, I am told.

Answer 3

Yes we should! they are absolutley worthless :S

Franklyn

Malta

Answer 4

Give them to me!

Or, start a collection tin and when it's full, donate it to charity.

That's what I do with my 1p and 2p coins- also useless currency! (although not as useless as 1c!)

Answer 5

Just thinking about gas prices rasing in 5 cent steps - horrible.

Answer 6

Believe it or not, it would fuel inflation because prices could only rise (or fall) by multiples of 5 cents.

Answer 7

yes, and best before next january :-) these small coins give marketers room to use values like 9.99, 99.99 to let people "feel" like product you buy is cheaper while it's not :-)

@Willekee:

smallest coin in SK is 50hal (0.5SK). 2 euro cents is 0.6SK, so it is not several times more ;-) and because of already "euro prices" for goods in SK, i think very few slovaks would complain. and for the countries who will start using euro later, till euro comes to them, their prices will be as high as prices in other euro countries (if it's not happening already), so they will not complain as well...

Answer 8

nah, it's useful for when retailers price things 1.98 or 1.99, it's just what they do.

Answer 9

i think they have done it in Netherlands,  works well. I think  we should,  all this 1.99 is  bullshit

Answer 10

it was embarrassing today, when my lunch cost 1.49, and the girl insisted on giving me my 1 c change.... like ye can't even say, " put it in the charity box", cos it's even too mean to do that.

Answer 11

They are quite annoying.. I always seem to have loads of them but when you buy something that's 9.99 you might want your 1c back...

Answer 12

Actually here in the Netherlands we don't use either of them anymore!

Everything is rounded up/down depending on the amount and it really is no big deal, so yes I would definately say get rid of them.  It makes your purse/wallet a lot lighter of pointless coins which just get lost anyway

As for the petrol issue, increases can still be made on the price per cent, it is just that if you put a total in your car tank of 20euros and 2 cents, then it is rounded down to 20euros, and if you do it for 20 euros and 4 cents then it becomes 20euros and 5 cents.  If you really want to spend the time to try to make that extra click on the pump, then so be it!  

So rounding is done on the total amount even if prices are advertised at 1.99, then e.g. in the supermarket and you buy 6 x €1.99 = €11.94, then you pay €11.95.  Surveys were done and proved that it actually it doesn't make much difference.  Neither retailers or consumers profit or lose much/anything by this rounding system

I checked to source this info and it seems that Finland do the same as NL, and in fact a survey done showed that Germany was the only country that was desperate to hold onto the small change!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_cent_euro...

P.S. - I forgot to mention (before anyone picks me up for it!), the rounding system in NL is only for payments in cash (coins), if you pay by pin (debit card) or credit card, then transactions are still made to the exact cent