I?ve been reading this article on the BBC website asking whether we really need the 1p coin considering that it has hardly any apparent value anymore.
I am of the view that the small coins, one penny and 2 pence, will be around with us for a while until either of two things happen. The first is that the rate of inflation rises to such a level as that nothing costs one penny anymore, and so the lowest value of coin is say five pence, but this is quite a long way down the line. The second is that hard cash is erradicated completely in favour of electronic money, i.e. Debit Cards or whatever althernative is around.
I think that by the time inflation rises to the level in the first scenario, it is more than likely that we will all be using cards instead of cash anyway, such is the way things are going with the proliference of card over cash.
At the moment though there is a place for ?real? money, and whilst that is the way then there will be a place for the humble penny.
?Look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves?
Header image under CC by gridrunner
Or we could just abolish copper now like they have in places like Australia and New Zealand.
I am all for the penny, as I am quite sure if we abolished it here, that pricing and taxes on everything would be rounded up to the nearest nickel, not down?and the pennies I save over the course of a year still mean something to me.
Everything would get rounded up, so we?d be paying more?. plus I can remember when money has been quite tight and I?ve had to raid the penny jar!
From experience in NZ, I can categorically say that everything that could get rounded up, was. Paying by cash became more expensive than whacking it on the card
They?ve discussed getting rid of the penny here, too, but I agree with your assessment. I, too, rather like the humble penny.
Gorgeous photo, btw!