Too few coins are currently in circulation. The finance ministry is calling on everyone to use their stock of coins. Many retailers often do not have enough change for their customers.
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200 million unused coins at home and in our wallets: 'Spend them in shops'
Colin Clapson
Published:
The government wants to bring the millions of coins lying unused in people's homes back into circulation. With the #spendyourchange campaign on social media, it is calling on citizens to use their cents to pay in shops.
There are more than 4.2 billion coins in Belgium, worth over 1.5 billion euros. Yet shops often struggle to have enough change for customers paying in cash. Many coins lie unused in people's homes. Based on a study in the Netherlands, more than 200 million coins are believed to be unused in Belgium.
Coins are not only welcome in shops: charitable organisations collect them and you can also exchange coins for bills at the bank or the National Bank of Belgium
Expensive and not environmentally friendly
The finance ministry claims that all this hoarding of coins costs money. New coins need to be minted to have enough coins in circulation. "By putting only 2 per cent of unused coins back into circulation, you can save more than 5 million euros a year in production costs".
And then there also the environmental aspect: a lot of CO2 is released during the production and transport of the coins!