Penny for your thoughts

It may not be the largest metals end market, but pressure could be mounting on governments in Europe to reduce their commitments to metal coins.

According to a report from the Wales Online website, the government of Ireland has been using a price rounding scheme that has allowed it to take more than 125 million coins out of circulation.

According to an update prepared by the Central Bank of Ireland, the number of 1- and 2-cent coins needed has been greatly reduced in a way that has been supported by about 90% of the Irish public. Ireland is part of the euro zone, but it does produce its own coins with Irish imagery.

As is the case with many coins, especially those of smaller denominations, since the commodities boom of the early 21^st century, the value of the metals in the small Irish coins has exceeded their face value.

Ireland is not the first nation to phase out small coins, notes Wales Online, with Australia having phased out its penny in the 1990s and Canada having done so in 2012.

The website says the United Kingdom’s Royal Mint does not disclose whether the metals content in its small coins exceeds their face value. But the organisation does say it as some 11.2 billion pennies in circulation and another 900 million in vaults awaiting their turn.

The U.K. pennies feature a steel interior, likely helping to keep the cost down, but they are plated in copper.

Wales Online says a 2015 survey of the U.K. public found that only about 20% of its citizens approved of phasing out the small coins.