Didn't the economists at the European Union consider inflation and the cost of producing all that small change when setting the value of the euro and its coins? In fact, two EU countries, Finland and the Netherlands, don't use the two lowest-value coins.
They use Swedish rounding and mint only small runs of one-cent and two-cent euro coins for collectors. The Finns and Dutch notwithstanding, there was a reason for including the small coins in the introduction of the euro, says Randall Hansen, a political science professor at the University of Toronto. The rounding up of prices when merchants switched from the old currency to the euro seemed more likely if the one-cent and two-cent coins didn't exist, Hansen said.
However, the euro was a brand new currency. In theory, the EU could have set its value higher and adjusted the exchange rates from the old currencies accordingly. If the euro had been set at, say, five U. But there were larger considerations than the small change in European pockets when it came to setting the value of the euro. The European Union wanted to create a currency that would compete on the global market with the U. Save the penny or leave the penny?
CBC News Loaded. Business Save the penny or leave the penny? Social Sharing. The 'Canadian' halfpenny A staple of British coinage for almost seven centuries, the halfpenny has a history — albeit a briefer one — in pre-Confederation Canada.
This went some way to alleviate the feeling many people had, that shopkeepers might use the conversion from old money to new to increase prices! Cafe price list circa with prices in shillings and pence. For a short time the old and new currencies operated in unison, whereby people could pay in pounds, shillings and pence and receive new money as change.
Originally it was planned that old money would be phased out of circulation over eighteen months, but as it turned out, the old penny, halfpenny and threepenny coins were officially taken out of circulation as early as August In comparison to the rest of the world, Britain lagged behind in the decimalisation stakes.
Whilst Britain and our nearest neighbour Ireland did not convert to decimalisation until , this was not the first time Britain had considered decimalisation. As far back as Parliament had considered decimalising the British currency. In ,the Decimal Association was founded in support of both decimalisation and use of the SI metric system, the international standard for physical measurements which had been adopted by France in the s and has since been widely introduced across the world although interestingly the metric system has still not been fully implemented in the UK.
They were minted in London and various provincial cities. In the 15th century some were struck in Calais and later third-farthings, worth a 12th of a penny, were minted for use only in Malta. They were not struck at the Royal Mint in the Tower of London. Popularly known as Haringtons, they had a tin surface that made them look more like the earlier silver farthings and also made them harder to fake. Comparisons of values over such a long period are somewhat difficult to do, with considerable changes in the sorts of things people were buying then and now, but the difference is large enough to be able to say with confidence that you could buy more with a farthing in the early 18th Century than you can with a penny today.
The farthing was the smallest coin until , except for a 27 year period in the midth Century under Queen Victoria, when there was a half farthing. Even the half farthing never dipped below a value of five pence in modern terms.
After the farthing was withdrawn in , the halfpenny was the lowest denomination coin until its demise in the run-up to decimalisation.
The pre-decimal penny was the lowest value coin for a few years until , when the decimal halfpenny took over. The halfpenny was finally withdrawn in under Margaret Thatcher's government, when it was worth 1. So we can conclude that since at least , Britain has not had a coin worth less than the current 1p piece.
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