It won’t be long before we’re all penniless
The demise of coppers is inevitable and cash may not be fit for the Queen but coins still have their uses
Icontemplated it once. With a handful of coppers I hadn’t really wanted as change, and with no pocket in which they would not jingle, I looked at the nearest bin and thought about leaving my pennies on top of it. Maybe someone would pick them up? But then I felt a wave of guilt about abandoning the coins, however small in value and inconvenient they might be. Coppers are money too, after all.
Yet apparently as many as one in 12 copper coins are thrown in the bin. That’s one of reasons cited for a consultation by the Treasury to consider “whether the current denominational mix of coins meets the public’s needs”. Does this mean abolishing the 1p and 2p pieces? Downing Street says no – for now. But the pressure is on. Coppers cost the same to mint as coins of a higher value, and 60 per cent of them are only used once before either being condemned to the numismatic purgatory of a dusty jar or discarded altogether.
As irritating as a wodge of dull, almost valueless coins can be, pennies deserve better than the bin; their value is more than just monetary. I still remember the excitement as a child of finding a penny older than I was, or a brand new gleaming copper disc, so much more solemn than its 5p cupronickel counterpart (only the greater heft of the old round pounds could match a good 2p).
Decimalisation and the euro went a long way to killing the charm of finding aged coins in a handful of change, either at home or on holiday. In Quebec City, I once received a dime from 1928 with the image of George V on its obverse – a blackened little coin that had witnessed more than I could possibly imagine. Compare that to the £2 coin, which even 20 years after its introduction still feels like a brash interloper.
Copper coins also have symbolic and educational worth. What better illustration of the power of inflation, slowly eating away at the value of the metal in your pocket, than the ever-shrinking purchasing power of a single penny (and the slow death of the penny sweet)?
For some, the loss of pennies is a harbinger of an even worse change: the arrival of the completely cashless society. It’s so easy not to keep track of small payments now, done as they are in seconds with the flick of a phone or card. I must admit that I am one of these cashless citizens. When I told a relative that I didn’t carry cash, I was asked if I thought I was the Queen.
But using cash is more than just a way to make spending tangible and consequential. It allows one to live at arm’s length from the financial system and the prying eyes of everyone from the Government through supermarkets to the other half of one’s joint bank account. Cash represents a level of guaranteed anonymity and freedom that is rare in the digital world.
Small coins also embody the more practical consequences of a cashless society. MPS worry that donations to charity buckets will shrink, and while neither hospices nor England’s churches can survive on pennies alone, there is genuine concern as to what the end of cash might mean for them. The Church of England is already experimenting with contactless receivers on donation boxes.
Nevertheless, whatever No 10 vows, the demise of coppers is inevitable. And while there is a real fight to defend cash from those who want everything itemised and logged for future reference, the 1p and 2p coins should not be part of it. It’s not simply about inflation – though that will squeeze out their use while also increasing the cost of minting them. Hold on long enough and even a bucket of pennies won’t buy a box of chocolate Freddos.
I have lived in a penniless society – Canada abolished its own penny in 2012 – and I can tell you, the other side isn’t that bad. Prices are still reassuringly unround, with cash transactions rounded both down as well as up; it all balances out in the long run. And in the penny-free future, there are still lots of five pence pieces to fall behind the sofa, pile up in jars, and tear through trouser pockets.
Even then, when the foolhardy start binning the 5p too, do not despair. Coins will be around for a while yet. Perhaps we’ll even see a new denomination join the ranks above that flashy £2. Hail the £10 coin. It would be one in the eye for the cashless like me.