2016-05-05 Thu

Treasurer Scott Morrison has declared the end of the five cent coin today, a bit earlier than most would have expected. The major reason for the rollback is the lack of demand. In the last 12 months the mint has produced about 20 million such coins and 58.2 million in 2014. Morrison revealed that the coins are in circulation but are no more are going to be minted.

Production levels were almost 10 times lower than 10 years ago due to the declining demand for the coins. Experts believe that only 50 percent transactions include cash payments and that the numbers are going to gradually fall. The government has not yet declared the final phase out of the coin.

While most of them are happy about the news, some fear that the value of low cost items would increase. Also, rounding up would not be a problem in a credit card sale and hence most retailers are not that worried. It’s more of a customer issue than a retailer issue though.