The copper-colored coins of our currency

What Brussels says

                 The European Commission wonders about the fate of the one and two-centime coins of euros. These small copper-colored coins, the utility of which, to block purse, remains to be proved, could disappear, replaced by prices rounded off in the closest five centimes. A strategy already adopted by Finland and Netherlands, which both stopped using them in 2004.

For the moment, four scenarios are for the study: the status quo (coins would stay in circulation), the reduction of the manufacturing cost, the pure and simple elimination or the progressive disappearance after the stop of the manufacturing. " We are going to commit a discussion with States, the central banks and consumers' associations to see which option gets free and can be the object of a private bill ", explained in a communiqué commissioner in charge of the economic and monetary business Olli Rehn.

If the European Commission envisages the disappearance of the loose change, it is above all for financial questions. Since the introduction of the euro in 2002, 45,8 billion one and two-centime coins were struck, that is 137 per capita by the Eurozone. According to Brussels, the cost bound to the strike of all these coins would reach even 1,4 billion euros.

An obstacle stays: "people (…) Are afraid of a risk of inflation if they disappear", alert the European Commission. The memory of the coming into force of the euro remains long-lived in reports: in 2002, the passage in the single currency had come along with the increase in prices, the number of traders taking the opportunity to round off labels in the increase.

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