As a variety of EU member states weigh-up schemes to reduce the circulation of copper coins, it seems the Irish are insistent they get their two cents, reports Paul Anderson.
A successful pilot scheme in Holland which has led to the virtual elimination of copper coinage at a large retail chain has re-invigorated moves in other countries to do away one and two cent coins.
The pilot project at the Bart Bartels supermarket in the town of Woerden has proved so successful that other retailers are considering adopting similar schemes.
The supermarket simply did away with pricing goods in denominations of less than five cent. In come cases it rounded up its old prices - for instance a packet of biscuits that was selling at €1.98 was increased to €2.00. But other goods were rounded down to compensate. A bottle of cabernet sauvignon was rounded down to €4.45 from a pervious price of €4.47.
Mr Albert Heijn, manager at Bart Bartels Woerden branch said the move was stimulated by the supermarket's customers. "We sometimes have one and two cent coins thrown on the ground here and not a single customer has bent down afterwards to pick them up. That shows how much worth people attach to them," he told the newspaper Deutsche Welle.
"It's a great idea," said one customer shopping at Bartels. "In my opinion, the small euro cents can gladly be abolished. Apart from getting in the way, consider how much time and work goes down the drain, fiddling around with the cents. Without these coins, everything would be much easier."
The pilot programme has so successful that the Dutch Retail Trade Federation has called on all its members to try it out. Now, 40,000 Dutch businesses are gradually phasing out the one and two cent coins.
Banks in Holland and elsewhere in the EU are also in favour. In Finland, their abolition from the banking system is under way, while in Germany spokesman for the banking federation said the move would reduce bank costs. A similar move is also being considered in Belgium.
But in Ireland any scheme, voluntary or otherwise, is not likely in the short term.
A spokeswoman for the independent retailers group, RGDATA, said the association would not back a similar move in Ireland.
"We would be concerned it would create a negative feeling about retailers with customers perhaps being suspicious there was more rounding up than rounding down," she said.
A majority of RGDATA members are small retailers with many of their goods priced at less than a euro, so changes to prices on such products could have "significant impact on their business", the spokeswoman added.
A Central Bank spokeswoman said: "We've heard nothing about any proposals for Ireland." She added that any Irish move on the issue would begin with the Minister for Finance making representations at European level. "We cannot change the denominations of the coins, that is matter for the [European] Commission," she said.
A Department of Finance spokeswoman said there had been no attempts to raise the issue in Europe and no plans to address it in the near future.
The Irish Bankers' Federation is similarly underwhelmed by the idea but held out 'hope' for the future. "It's not something that's been raised at an industry level but it's something we'd be keeping an eye on".
Additional reporting from agencies