Copper coins: are they doomed?

Penny arcades, piggy banks, penny sweets... all doomed?

(Image credit: John Keeble / Getty Images)

published 3 August 2024

"The Great British penny could be at risk of being scrapped," said Chris Matthews in the Daily Mail. This year, for the first time ever, the Treasury has placed no new orders at all for new coins from the Royal Mint, saying that the 27 billion already in circulation in the UK are sufficient. It does not expect to order any new 1p and 2p coins in the coming years, and officials are said to be considering "a range of scenarios" for the future of copper coins, as the UK increasingly becomes a cashless society. Many Britons reacted to the news with "howls of dismay". Get rid of coppers, and with them many "greatly loved experiences" will be consigned to history: penny arcades, piggy banks, penny sweets.

Don't panic, said Harry Wallop in The Times. Nothing has been decided yet, and the Royal Mint often pauses its coining machines. New 2p coins haven't been made since 2021. Cash is still printed regularly, because torn and tatty notes need to be replaced. But coins, being made of copper-plated steel, "endure". And because electronic money is taking over – last year cash was used for only 12% of all payments – there's a "glut" of coppers, which inflation has made virtually worthless. The cash management company Vaultex has 1,300 cages, each holding tens of thousands of coins, in its vaults, which nobody wants. The simplest solution might be to scrap the 2p coin; the smaller and less "pocket-destroying" 1p coin could easily do its job. The halfpenny, after all, was scrapped in 1984. There was grumbling then, but no one missed it. Copper coins are "a historical anomaly", and eventually they will go.

We will miss our coppers, said Matthew Lynn in The Spectator. Many people still rely on cash payments. And getting rid of 1p and 2p coins will "inevitably fuel inflation". Retailers are reluctant to cross barriers such as 99p and £1.99. If pennies don't exist, prices will be rounded up "to something far larger". Besides, there's a romance to coins, said The Times. "These intricate metal tokens, smoothed by time and trade, are vehicles for history, art and commerce." A mudlarker can find a Roman coin buried on the Thames foreshore "and feel a flicker of magic. Somehow an expired debit card won't hold the same charm."