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What I don't get is why we need coins anymore? Can't they just make £1 pound note same to the £5 one? I am always annoyed when I got coins on me and I never pay

by muse900 10y ago

What I don't get is why we need coins anymore? Can't they just make £1 pound note same to the £5 one? I am always annoyed when I got coins on me and I never pay attention to them. Why not make £1 worth more by making it a note? Why not move away from notes nowadays? Is there any specific reason to that? Is there just too much metal sitting around that they thought that would be an ok use of it?

morsch 10y ago
A quick look suggests that one reason is that coins last a lot longer than paper currency.
pjc50 10y ago
We used to have pound notes, and they're still technically in circulation in Scotland (although I've never seen one). According to wikipedia they were withdrawn because: "Part of the reason for this change was that notes, on average, lasted only nine months in general circulation, while coins could last forty years or more. The government also believed that the growing vending industry would benefit from the introduction of a one pound coin." Maybe the economics have changed with polymer notes. But the BoE inflation calculator tells me that the £1 notes withdrawn (in 1984 money) would be worth about £3 today. So maybe the fiver is next. Then there's the lunatics that want to abolish physical money altogether...
- kuschku 10y ago
  > So maybe the fiver is next. Something like that is already being discussed on the continent. The memorial 5€ coin recently (which is legal tender) wasn’t just that, but it was also a test if a 5€ coin would be accepted, and doable.
  - RugnirViking 10y ago
    We do also have memorial £5 coins here in the UK although I don't know if they are a test for anything, as there have been quite a few over the years. A common gift for people as they are quite large with nice designs on
  - flobjax 10y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_pounds_(British_coin) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_pounds_(British_coin) There's been a British £5 coin since 1990 along the same lines (commemorative, but technically legal tender).
  - ThePadawan 10y ago
    Switzerland has been using the 5CHF coin for a long while now, and as an end user, my only issue with it is its size and weight, originating from the fact that the coins ranging from .50 to 5CHF are defined to linearly scale in weight.
DangerousPie 10y ago
Notes need to be replaced much more often than coins, making them significantly more expensive. There are actually people arguing for doing the exact opposite of what you suggest in the US - replacing all $1 notes with $1 coins to save money.
- madeofpalk 10y ago
  > replacing all $1 notes with $1 coins to save money yay. Australians didn't die when they introduced the $1 note and remove 1c and 2c coins - they seem to do just fine.
Marazan 10y ago
Pound Notes are way more expensive to produce than pound coins (given lifetime of note vs coin)
branchless 10y ago
Because one GBP is worth so little now it's not economic to manufacture notes which don't last long. Other coins have also become smaller and lighter as they try to keep the issuance cost below the cost of the metal.

by muse900 10y ago

morsch 10y ago

A quick look suggests that one reason is that coins last a lot longer than paper currency.

pjc50 10y ago

We used to have pound notes, and they're still technically in circulation in Scotland (although I've never seen one). According to wikipedia they were withdrawn because: "Part of the reason for this change was that notes, on average, lasted only nine months in general circulation, while coins could last forty years or more. The government also believed that the growing vending industry would benefit from the introduction of a one pound coin." Maybe the economics have changed with polymer notes. But the BoE inflation calculator tells me that the £1 notes withdrawn (in 1984 money) would be worth about £3 today. So maybe the fiver is next. Then there's the lunatics that want to abolish physical money altogether...

kuschku 10y ago
> So maybe the fiver is next. Something like that is already being discussed on the continent. The memorial 5€ coin recently (which is legal tender) wasn’t just that, but it was also a test if a 5€ coin would be accepted, and doable.
- RugnirViking 10y ago
  We do also have memorial £5 coins here in the UK although I don't know if they are a test for anything, as there have been quite a few over the years. A common gift for people as they are quite large with nice designs on
- flobjax 10y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_pounds_(British_coin) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_pounds_(British_coin) There's been a British £5 coin since 1990 along the same lines (commemorative, but technically legal tender).
- ThePadawan 10y ago
  Switzerland has been using the 5CHF coin for a long while now, and as an end user, my only issue with it is its size and weight, originating from the fact that the coins ranging from .50 to 5CHF are defined to linearly scale in weight.

DangerousPie 10y ago

Notes need to be replaced much more often than coins, making them significantly more expensive. There are actually people arguing for doing the exact opposite of what you suggest in the US - replacing all $1 notes with $1 coins to save money.

madeofpalk 10y ago
> replacing all $1 notes with $1 coins to save money yay. Australians didn't die when they introduced the $1 note and remove 1c and 2c coins - they seem to do just fine.

Marazan 10y ago

Pound Notes are way more expensive to produce than pound coins (given lifetime of note vs coin)

branchless 10y ago

Because one GBP is worth so little now it's not economic to manufacture notes which don't last long. Other coins have also become smaller and lighter as they try to keep the issuance cost below the cost of the metal.