5€-Coin or Future?
It sure does look fancy: Since April 14, 2016, the official 5€-coin is available in Germany and can be used as an official payment method. That made me think. Countries like Sweden and the US heavily rely on new payment methods such as credit and debit cards or “smart” things like PayPal, Apple Pay or Google’s counterpart. Why do we need a new coin? Granted, it is probably hard, if not impossible to create counterfeit money or commit credit card fraud with it, but do we really still need coins at all? They require lots of raw materials and their embossing needs machinery and energy. Wouldn’t it have been a better innovation to get rid of the 1, 2 and 5 cent coins? It would save copper, energy and lots of space in everybody’s wallet. The next step would be to replace 1-and 2-€-coins with new, copy-proof notes. 20-cent-coins are redundant, too (just use two 10’s). And the fifty cents? We can keep that. Sure, every shop owner in Europe will have to adjust their pricing, but it worked when the Euro was invented in 2002, so it will work again.
In 2013, Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro, stated that the embossing and distribution of the one and two cent coins had cost the EU about 1.4bn € between 2002 and 2013, and a total of almost 46bn coins (that is only one and two cents!). Rehn suggested to lower the production costs. However, I think just getting rid of these coins will be more effective.
So, where does that leave us? Far behind, at least in my opinion. I am willing to pay 3€ instead of 2,99€ for that pack of chewing gum. And I know that a car for 9,999.99€ is still a ten thousand euro car. They can’t fool me. Please, Europe, wake up and get rid of your coins!
