to think we should get rid of coppers?

[Vitamints]

I've just sorted through a load of change (mostly pennies and 2p pieces that have accumulated in my purse and DP's pockets and get dumped in the pot on the mantelpiece) and now my hands stink. They're heavy and smelly and annoying and ruin your pockets and I hate them. They must be worth a fraction of what the half new penny was worth when it was discontinued.

I would like

Copper coins:

1p (discontinued)
2p (discontinued)
5p (to be phased out when it becomes as worthless as a 2p is now)

Silver coins:

10p
20p
50p

Gold coins:

£1
£2
£5

Notes:

£10
£20
£50 (and actually using them, rather than shopkeepers looking at you funnily - I'm sure nobody looked askance at you for using a £20 note in the eighties)

AIBU?

I have to admit part of what bothers me is the lack of a logical system. My proposed hierarchy organises coins and notes in groups of 1, 2, and 5, in a pleasing way. Three copper coins, three silver coins, three gold coins, three notes.

What we actually have is

Round, copper:
1p
2p

Round, milled, silver:

5p
10p

Weird pointy shape, off-silver

20p

Different weird pointy shape, silver:

50p

Round, gold:

£1

Round, bimetallic

£2

Notes:

£5
£10
£20
£50 (different style from others)

HOW DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?

I remember buying sweets for 1/2 p.
And when 5p mixes meant you got lots of sweets.

What is annoying are coin machines which don't accept certain coins. We were scrabbling about trying to pay a toll on a bridge the other day and 5ps were not accepted. If its legal tender, why not?

Get rid of 1p and 2p coins and prices will go up.

Get rid of 1p and 2p coins and prices will go up.

I bet they said that at decimalisation.
When we got rid of 1/2 pennies

When some countries joined the Euro. they might have had a point there

But but what would happen if i procured some tasty treat, and it cost me £1.05? How would we get change?
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO PENNY MIX UPS?

As someone who has very little money i think YABU.

Those 1,2,5ps mean a lot to me. I am that person who waits in at a checkout for my 1p change because i need that 1p.

Chilly - it wouldnt cost you 1.05 it would cost 1.10.

YABU. I cannot wait until DD is old enough to play the penny pushers at the arcade and I will be furious if they are taken away in the mean time!
As for using 10p pushers instead, I'm not a bloody millionaire! I'm not spending £5 on 50 coins in 10ps for the pushers when you can spend £1 for 50 coins in 2ps!

What about sweets? The 3p sweet price will increase. It's bad enough paying more for what was once a penny sweet but to the pay 5p/10p takes the piss.

Unless you only buy one sweet at a time it should be okay - if you buy five 3p sweets it's 15p.

Does anyone remember when Fruit Salad chews suddenly massively shrank in order to keep the price the same?

I bank with HSBC and they have a lovely coin paying in machine. I just tip my bag of coins in and it sorts, counts and credits them to my account.

The £1 coin is changing shape in 2017 to be the same as the threepenny bit.

1p and 2p, maybe, but I think getting rid of 5p is a step too far.
Tho I LOVE the arcade games, and can't wait to take the kids when they finally reopen the local seaside one.

A £5 coin would be really heavy, and definitely damage your pockets.

Do many people pay for things over about £20 in cash? do we need £50 to be more common?

It makes me laugh when people get funny over £50 notes. Surely if you were going to forge notes then you would go for lower value ones that are unlikely to be checked? Most shops will check a £50 before accepting but other notes just get bunged straight in the till. Aren't £1 coins the most common fake money in circulation which is part of the reason for the redesign?

But if there was no 1 and 2 p in circulation, there would be no sweets at that value. So instead of getting 5 sweets I would only get 3 until the 5p was also phased out.

True - but at some point, 1p won't buy you a sweet.

Even if you had a 1p coin, it won't by itself buy you a single item.

A couple of PPs have described how it works in Australia, where they still have things priced to the cent and the total bill gets rounded off, which sounds like it would work okay, bloody.

not really as all shops round up...... so they make profits by decpiction why not just label them 1.60 rather then 1.58 and just pocketing the 2 cents/ pence what ever as i doubt any shop actully rounds down.... (in the netherlands by law the shops have to round down so low and beyond the shops dont mess around with prices

Worra - that's £6 you gave coinstar for the faff of not bagging the coins yourself. Why not get the kids to do it as a challenge?

We collect all our change throughout the year
Then we take it all to the coin machine at the supermarket and buy lots of alcohol
It makes my Christmas

My kids and DH would be distraught if 2ps were discontinued! What about the 2p machines huh! Mine enjoy nothing more than an hour or in the arcade when we're on our hols!

I think we should get rid of cash. Contactless cards are quicker and easier than cash for paying.

I HATE 5ps, almost to phobia level, so bring back the proper sized ones I say! I'm also a collector of small coins, sometimes it's what feeds us at the end of a poor month! Don't get rid of them!

Beware. That way inflation lies.

I've just returned from Sainsbury's and have fed £6-odd into the self-service till with coins.

I don't care. I'd rather it was in my pocket than theirs.