Starting today (October 28th), Republic of Ireland will begin their Rounding of Cash Transactions to reduce the use of 1 cent and 2 cent coins. Rounding will be conducted on a voluntary basis and will only apply to cash payments with the total amount of any bill being rounded up or down to the nearest 5 cent mark.
This will be done on a voluntary basis and the 1 cent and 2 cent coins will still remain legal tender.
The bill can be rounded up or down, as follows:
- a transaction costing €10.21 or €10.22 would be rounded to €10.20
- a transaction costing €10.23 or €10.24 would be rounded to €10.25
- a transaction costing €10.26 or €10.27 would be rounded to €10.25
- a transaction costing €10.28 or €10.29 would be rounded to €10.30
- Two individual items priced at €10.99 and €3.49 respectively would remain at these prices, although the change on the total bill (€14.48), if €15.00 was tendered would be rounded down from 52c to 50c.
Three individual items priced at €2.99, €4.49 and €8.13 respectively would remain at these prices, although though the change on the total bill (€15.61), if €20.00 was tendered, would be rounded up from €4.39 to €4.40.
As at 12 June 2015 1,096,853,216 2c coins have been issued into circulation in Ireland amounting to €21,937,064.32. 1,384,491,236 1c coins have been issued into circulation in Ireland amounting to €13,844,912.36.
A 1 cent coin costs 1.65c to produce while 2 cent coin costs 1.94c.
Since joining the euro in 2001, Ireland has spent some €37 million (£27m) minting the copper coins.
Similar schemes have already been introduced in other eurozone states including the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Hungary.
