from Hacker News

2p and £2 coin production suspended for ten years (2020)

by mpsq on 4/6/21, 10:37 PM with 11 comments

• by spiralx on 4/7/21, 11:45 AM

  The interesting part for me was this:

  > According to the NAO report, The Bank of England has estimated that 20-24% of UK notes in circulation are in use or being held for cash transactions, with a further 5% (£1-3.5bn) held by households in savings.

  > “Little is known about the remainder (approximately £50 billion worth of notes)” said the report. Potential explanations include overseas holdings for transactions or savings and UK holdings of unreported domestic savings or for use in the shadow economy.

  So over 70% of UK banknotes are just... missing? Apparently the UK's market for drugs is a bit under £10bn per year (a third of the entire EU, go us!) so it seems black market usage is unlikely to account for the entire £50bn.

  https://www.russellwebster.com/carolblack5/

• by stevep98 on 4/7/21, 5:18 AM

  The 2p coin should have gone a long time ago. It’s exactly the same weight as 2 1p coins. It’s huge though.

  I also have a big problem with the pound coin... it’s far too heavy.

• by hedora on 4/7/21, 4:09 AM

  Going to zero production for ten years seems foolish. Will they actually be able to turn the machines back on at that point? 1% or 10% would make more sense (unless they’re just planning to permanently discontinue the coins, but can’t publicly admit it)