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Has the penny had its day?

Like many of us over a number of years I had accumulated a bag full of Euro denominated coins so last week I took the opportunity of repatriating my bag full of Euro Cents by feeding a number of car park ticket machines along Germany’s Baltic Coast. 

As I “fed” the machines with these small strange coins I wondered whether the UK’s “penny” might have also had its day. Just 13 years after 1971’s Decimalisation the National Consumer Council stated that the half (new) penny was “useless” - now some 52 years after Decimalisation do we need to ask whether the one, two, and perhaps even the five pence pieces have also had their day?

According to Coin and Mint News several countries have dispensed with their lowest denomination coin in recent years. They include, in the last decade or so, the Bahamas, Canada, Chile, India, Japan, Moldova, Ukraine and the UAE, among others. 

Within the eurozone, six countries no longer issue them, and as many again are considering dropping them. They report that plans are afoot in the European Commission, meanwhile, to do away with them across the entire monetary zone. 

Now the Isle of Man are asking whether their lowest denomination coins had had their day (at least in a physical form).

Checkout my blog here: https://open.substack.com/pub/northeypoint/p/in-terms-of-the-coins-in-your-pocket?r=5igm3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web