One and two-cent coins to be ditched from next week onwards

The Government is set to remove one and two cent coins from circulation starting from next week.

Ireland will become the latest country to drop one and two cent coins from circulation.

From the end of October, retailers will round up or down to the nearest five cent as smaller coins are phased out. The practice will only apply to cash transactions.

The country joins six other EU nations which have already adopted a rounding policy, including Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden.

The Central Bank of Ireland said one-cent coins, worth about 0.7p, cost more to mint than their equivalent face value: a one cent coin costs 1.65 cents to produce, while the two cent coin costs 1.94 cents.

The phasing out of the one and two cent coins means that the five cent coin – worth 3.7p – will be our smallest unit of exchange.

The decision comes following a successful trial in Wexford in late 2013. It found that 85% of consumers who participated were in favour of extending it nationwide.

The National Payments Plan (NPP) trial was run from September 16 to November 17, 2013, with the aim of reducing the need for coins.

During the rounding scheme, retailers rounded prices to the nearest five cent at the cash register removing the need for smaller change.

Change for charity

Meanwhile, a nationwide campaign to see Irish charities benefit from the phasing out of these coins is gaining momentum.

'Change for Charity' has been in place since last October encouraging people all over the country to donate their unwanted one cent and two cent coins to help support a number of Irish charities. The campaign has over 3000 collection receptacles all over the country in schools, shops and banks.

Every AIB and Bankof Ireland branch has a receptacle so on this occasion banks actually will accept your unwanted coins - all you have to do is drop them into the large collection receptacles at any stage during bank opening hours, there is no staff assistance required for this service.

There are an estimated €35M of these coins in people’s homes and offices in bottles and jars, which will soon be of no use to anyone. So the Change For Charity campaign is encouraging people to get these coins to a collection point near them sooner rather than later.