Should 1p and 2p coins be scrapped?

I personally would scrap them. 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and then notes.

All products would be (IMO) rounded up to the nearest 5p.

The thing is: it's those 1p and 2p niggles where a lot of people make a little more profit on at the moment. Rouded should make that little bit more profit.

It's what I would do.
 
If you go to any country in the Euro zone, most charge full Euros or half euros. The only time I saw things priced at random amounts was supermarkets.

Even bought a cup of coffee in a cafe and got charged £2.19 for it
 
Bouton Aide said:
I personally would scrap them. 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and then notes.

All products would be (IMO) rounded up to the nearest 5p.

The thing is: it's those 1p and 2p niggles where a lot of people make a little more profit on at the moment. Rouded should make that little bit more profit.

It's what I would do.
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Good idea. We should all pay more so companies can make that little bit more profit.

cheesefest said:
If you go to any country in the Euro zone, most charge full Euros or half euros. The only time I saw things priced at random amounts was supermarkets.

Even bought a cup of coffee in a cafe and got charged £2.19 for it
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You were charged £2.19 in the Eurozone?
 
Pawnless Endgame said:
I think I started a thread like this a few years ago, so I agree with you OP. My proposal was:

- scrap 1p and 2p coins
- make 5p the new bronze coin, i.e single-digit coins are bronze
- keep 10p, 20p and 50p as silver coins, i.e. double-digit coins are silver
- keep £1 and £2 as gold and introduce a £5 coin as gold, i.e. triple-digit coins are gold
- keep £10 and £20 as notes and make the £50 note more common

There is no need for 99p stores. Have them as pound stores, like Poundland. Other items sold as 99p would be either £1 or 95p, or £4.95 etc. Postage stamps would be in multiples of 5p. Pick 'n' mix would be weighed as multiples of 5p.

The stock market would be exempt because share prices have decimal points e.g. 99.1p per share.
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Hardly anything in the Pound store is a pound these days.
 
Lysander said:
How would you propose people were given change from a 99p item?
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Just have them stop pricing things that way... or at least not retail goods & services. They can still sell things at *.95 if they value the psychological effect.

Obvs things like salary, tax, NI interest payments etc.. won't necessarily be in 5p multiples but not really a huge drama as cash isn't typically used.
 
I've noticed in the US when I was there, if you bought something and it was either 99c or similar, and you give them a dollar, in some places you were expected to donate small change to charity.

This was at a gas/petrol station, so I'm not sure if it was universal.
 
dowie said:
Just have them stop pricing things that way... or at least not retail goods & services. They can still sell things at *.95 if they value the psychological effect.

Obvs things like salary, tax, NI interest payments etc.. won't necessarily be in 5p multiples but not really a huge drama as cash isn't typically used.
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So instant 5% inflation then? Great idea!!!!!!!!
 
Pawnless Endgame said:
I think I started a thread like this a few years ago, so I agree with you OP. My proposal was:

- scrap 1p and 2p coins
- make 5p the new bronze coin, i.e single-digit coins are bronze
- keep 10p, 20p and 50p as silver coins, i.e. double-digit coins are silver
- keep £1 and £2 as gold and introduce a £5 coin as gold, i.e. triple-digit coins are gold
- keep £10 and £20 as notes and make the £50 note more common

There is no need for 99p stores. Have them as pound stores, like Poundland. Other items sold as 99p would be either £1 or 95p, or £4.95 etc. Postage stamps would be in multiples of 5p. Pick 'n' mix would be weighed as multiples of 5p.

The stock market would be exempt because share prices have decimal points e.g. 99.1p per share.
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Pretty much agree with all of that, though I'd perhaps consider having both the 5p and 10p as small and large bronze coins as per the current 1p/2p, I'm not sure colour coordinating with digits matters much so long as the coins are distinct; bronze/thin/small = lower value seems fine.

Also, scrap the 20p in favour of a US-style "quarter"/25p coin as a round silver coin... maybe in a similar shape/size to the current 10p coins. There are some silver 25p coins from the 80s but they're massive and are a sort of continuation of the old "crown" coins. There are also more modern gold coins with a nominal 25p value in the form of quarter soverigns.

£5 coins already exist too - these are also large round silver coins like the old "crown" coins and perhaps a more appropriate face value a coin like that, they're also just issued as commemorative coins though would be cool to have some in circulation. I think it's fine to have those in sivler, they're larger than the part silver/part gold £1 and £2 coins.

Also agree re: the non-retail goods and services "issues" - so long as shops and restaraunts etc.. use 5p multiples in procing (inc VAT) then it's not a drama, it's not like you pay your taxes or transfer funds to and from your stockbroker using coins/notes.

Greebo said:
So instant 5% inflation then? Great idea!!!!!!!!
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Not necessarily - if you have something at 9.99 or indeed 99.99 it could well be deemed better to price it at 9.95 or 99.95 than 10.95 or 100.95.

It's hardly a big deal, I don't see how it's going to add 5% to inflation, if a retailer thinks they can get away with sticking £1 (or 96p) on the value of an item they don't really need an excuse to do so.
 
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Completely agree. Rounding to the nearest 5 pence will make no difference to affordability and nobody falls for the 99p rather than even £1 anymore.

Melt them all down and put them to better use in industry.
 
You can get rid of 1p coins.
There are still numerous uses for the other smaller denominations.
With 40-50 items in a shopping trolley, if we round up by loosing everything under 20p Then you just added £10.00 onto a weekly shop.
 
Should have scrapped 1p and 2p at least 20yrs ago, absolutely worthless coins that sod all wants, either get left behind at the till or thrown somewhere. Pricing things at the end like 39p, 99p etc gets on my sodding nerves, just round it up and be done.

5p should be the smallest coin in this day and age. You can't by anything in the shops for 1p or 2p, smallest would be something around 20p or 30p so you would need a bag of copper coins if you wanted to pay for something using them, absolutely worthless, more valuable as scrap metal.

With older coins from 1990 and older being mostly made of copper, they would be far more valuable melted down and sold as scrap, and there is a hell of a lot of those old coins about.
 
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Raiden85 said:
Should have scrapped 1p and 2p at least 20yrs ago, absolutely worthless coins that sod all wants, either get left behind at the till or thrown somewhere. Pricing things at the end like 39p, 99p etc gets on my sodding nerves, just round it up and be done.

5p should be the smallest coin in this day and age. You can't by anything in the shops for 1p or 2p, smallest would be something around 20p or 30p so you would need a bag of copper coins if you wanted to pay for something using them, absolutely worthless, more valuable as scrap metal.
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Penny for your thoughts?
 
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