Down with the coppers! 65% want euro cents abolished

Nearly two-thirds of the Maltese would like the 1c and 2c coins abolished and replaced by a mandatory rounding of prices to 0 or 5 cents, depending on which sum is closer.

Support for the abolition of 1 and 2 cent coins in Malta is two points lower than that in the entire Eurozone. Support for the abolition of these two coins is highest in Slovakia (84%) and lowest in Portugal (53%), while support for retaining coins is highest in Portugal (44%) and Greece (40%). 

Only 31% of Maltese want to retain the two coins.

Compared to 2019, more Maltese have made their mind on whether the two coins should be abolished. A six-point decrease in undecided respondents has resulted in a three-point increase both for and against retaining the two coins.

When asked to state with which euro coins they experience difficulties with 84% of Maltese reported finding difficulties with the 1 cent coin, 83% experience difficulties with the 2 cents coin and 74% experience difficulties with the 5 cents coin. As is the case with Germans, the Finns and the French, Maltese experience difficulties handling 20 cents coins (34%) than 10 cents coin (28%). 

At the end of 2017 61 billion 1 cent and 2 cents coins were produced up from 47 billion in 2012. These represented 48% of all coins minted in the Eurozone.

In September 2020 the European Commission launched a public consultation on the use of the 1 and 2 cent coins. European citizens were invited to express their views for four weeks on whether or not to abolish them through an open consultation on a dedicated website.

The aim was to decide, at the end of 2021, whether a legislative proposal for uniform rounding rules for cash payments and possibly the abandonment of the 1 and 2 cent coins, was justified.

A report published by the European Commission in 2018 revealed that almost half of all euro coins issued are one- and two-cent coins. The return rate of one- and two-cent coins to national central banks was the lowest for all denominations. “One-way use, a low return rate to national central banks and a steady increase in the issuance of the one- and two-cent coins all support the hypothesis that these denominations are not circulating efficiently among economic operators, but are mostly hoarded or lost,” the report concluded.

In addition to the environmental cost of lost coins, the European Commission also concluded that “the acquisition costs alone already exceed the face value of the coin. From a budgetary point of view, issuing this denomination is a loss-making activity for member states.”

Finland already requires the final amount of purchases to be rounded up to the nearest five cents when paying in cash. Belgium passed a law in 2014 to prescribe voluntary rounding, as did Ireland a year later. Italy has also passed legislation to impose rounding and has stopped minting one- and two-cent coins.

The survey also shows that the percentage of Maltese who when buying things still convert the price to the national currency is declining. Only 8% say that they do so for day-to-day shopping, down from 14% in 2019. 11% still do so for exceptional purposes like buying a car or a house, down from 14% in 2019. 

The survey shows that the notion that the euro has made travelling easier and less costly is the majority view in 17 euro-area countries, with the highest scores observed in Ireland (89%) and Malta (87%), which was 25 points higher compared to October 2019.

Moreover, 79% of Maltese think that introducing the euro was a good thing for their country. Satisfaction with the euro was only higher among the Irish (90%) and the Finns (84%).

Compared with the results from 2019, the proportion of respondents who say the euro is a good thing for their country has significantly increased in 11 countries, with the largest increases seen in Lithuania (+21 pp) and Malta (+11 pp).

43% of the Maltese also think that the euro made them feel more European than before. In all Eurozone countries only 30% said that the euro makes them feel more European than before.

Support for abolition of 1 and 2 cents