Time to search the sofa: Central Bank pleas for millions of coppers

Irish people's reluctance to spend a penny has forced the Central Bank to plead for the safe return of hundreds of millions of coppers worth tens of millions of euro which have simply disappeared.

Almost three times more one and two cent coins are minted in Ireland than the EU average but not because they are sought after but because we leave them lying unloved and unspent in change jars or money boxes or, most likely , down the back of our sofas.

Ireland has issued almost 2.5 billion 1 cent and 2 cent coins since the euro came into being in 2003. The Central Bank is now warning that if we continue to collect but not spend them it will be difficult to keep up with demand from retailers who need to have a steady stream for change purposes.

Coppers, which are actually made with 94.5 per cent steel and plated with 5.5 per cent copper, cost more to make and transport than they will ever be worth.

A one cent coin costs 1.7 cent to produce, while a two cent coin costs almost exactly two cent. With about 25 billion of them in circulation across the EU, the total cost of production stands at close to €400 million

It is, by any measure, a lot to spend on something so useless. Lower denomination coins can’t be used in vending machines, at toll booths or to pay for car parking and there can’t be a shop in the country that likes to get them in any significant numbers or a shopper who likes giving them.

“Lots of people keep copper coins in jars and piggy banks around the house,” a Central Bank spokesman said. “ There is €35.3 million worth of 1c and 2c coins. We urge people to use this time of the year to de-clutter, by either giving these coins to charity or spending them.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan is currently considering proposals to drop one and two cent coins from following a trial across Co Wexford which saw prices for cash transactions rounded to the nearest five cent.

The trial carried out by the National Payments Plan, a branch of the Central Bank, said it had gone well with 85 per cent consumers and 100 per cent of retailers who took part saying that rounding up was the way of the future.

It remains to be seen if the penny will drop.