#Expat Alert: #Irish Euro 1c and 2c to be withdrawn

For all you Emerald Isle folks in #Greece : Take note, Beginning of End of #1c and #2c #Coins

Get cashing in

From Wednesday October 28th, 2015 The Central Bank of Ireland will no longer be placing 1c and 2c coins in circulation. From that date shops and supermarkets and other outlets will be given the right to round off change given to customers to the nearest 5 cents in a cash transaction. That means up or down in rounding off. For now this move is voluntary by the vendors.

The reasons for the move says the bank is the cost of production of the 1c which costs 1.65 cents to make each coin. The 2c coins cost 1.94c each to produce. The other reason according to the Bank is to reduce the need for the copper coins in the first place.

Some 1.38 billion 1c coins are in circulation - many it is speculated are stuffed in piggy banks, jam jars or the like as are the nearly 1.1 billion 2c coins.

Ireland’s central bank is also to start withdrawing the coins which will remain legal tender until they are removed out of the hands of the public. The bottom line is the bank wants to save the taxpayer money.

It raises a question. What about all the other Eurozone countries that also produce the 1c and 2c coins brought into Ireland as legal tender?  Actually Ireland is joining other EU nations in rationalising their coinage. The move is called “rounding policy”. Belgium, Finland and The Netherlands already do so.

Out of curiosity: Denmark (krone), Hungary (forint) and Sweden (krona) are doing the same.

For those of us in Greece will recall how there was a marked shortage of small change coins several years ago and the supermarkets were already rounding off giving change to the nearest 5 cents. The reverse seems to be the case now in my experience where we get change down to the last cent. The supermarkets equally seem to welcome receiving 1c, 2c and 5c coins. That is my experience anyway.

caption: Irish Euro 1c and 2c coins. The Government of Ireland decided on a single national design for all Irish euro coins incorporating the Celtic harp, year of issue and "Éire". Copyright: ecb.europa.eu

Original source: http://www.centralbank.ie/press-area/press-releases/Pages/28OctoberisRoundingDay.aspx

Note: The full list of EU states using the Euro (as of Sept1, 2015) are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.