Capital Economy, Business and Finance
The UK’s Royal Mint produces a tenth as many pennies as a decade ago because of surging inflation and the waning popularity of cash. It’s well known that pennies cost more than they’re worth to make and that’s doubly true in the USA, where a long-running conversation about killing off the one-cent coin – which holds even less value than the British penny – rumbles on. So should the UK ditch its smallest coin? It would save money, make shopping simpler and reduce the usage of mined materials. And there’s precedent. Canada stopped production of the Canadian penny in 2013. Coins in circulation remain legal tender there, and retailers round cash transactions up and down to the nearest two cents. The Isle of Man halted minting of pennies and two-pence pieces in 2016 and will only produce more if there’s a public shortage. That’s unlikely. Retailers do less “charm pricing” these days, where prices end in .99, and in 2022 cash was used in only 14 per cent of transactions anyway.
