There are currently 11 billion one penny coins in circulation.
That's approximately 169 or £1.69 worth of penny coins per person.
And fun facts: 60% of them are only used once, 8% of them are thrown away!
My penny stash!
This year the UK Treasury has placed no new orders for penny coins, which is the first time since it began minting them SINCE 1968.
They've been around a while, they first entered circulation in 1971 and have become a much loved part of British culture: think penny arcades, piggy banks, and penny sweets.
Although reflecting on those three things does feel a little nostalgic, or maybe that's a euphemism for dusty, dirty and completely unnecessary!
I mean there's something pretty grim{sby) about Penny Arcades IMO, not the kind of place I'd choose to hang out in, maybe I'd take my kids there to entertain them for a few hours for very cheap, but that's about the advantage, all that noise. And no chance of winning anything decent, just cheap shit.
The reason we've stopped printing them is simply because there are too many of them. We are using cash much less for payments, so this is just part of the move to more people using cards and apps to pay.
Cash was only used for 12% of payments last year!
However there is an extra impetus for getting rid of pennies: inflation has made coppers almost worthless. I mean, what can you actually buy for just one pence these days...? Anything...?
The cash management company Vaultex has 1300 cages each holding tens of thousands of coins. Which nobody wants.
And personally they are just an irritation.... when I do pay with cash I'm never glad to see them, they just jingle around in and ruin my pockets very unlikely to be used ever again.....
I'm not convinced that getting rid of them would give a little boost to inflation....
Personally I'd probably round higher ticket items DOWN rather than up. I mean £19.95 sounds much better than £20.00 if I'm having to change from £19.99 and 4 pence is a relatively small margin once you're up there.
Maybe on smaller ticket items we'll have to see a rounding up because the margins are so small.
Come to think of it we'll probably see the poor being hurt more, as smaller shops will have to round up, whereas in supermarkets they will be able to round down because of the higher margins.
Pennies... enjoy them while they last!
