Oliver Krischer wants to make the people in Germany to the wallet – to make it easier to. The Deputy leader of the Greens in the Bundestag calls for the end Of one – and Two-Cent coins. “The coins are completely unnecessary, and mainly a Nuisance in the wallet,” he told the Saarbrücker Zeitung. The Bundesbank should take an example to EU States such as Finland or Ireland, where the small coins are no longer minted.
The Green politicians argued, moreover, that it costs too much money and too much energy, coins. According to Krischer, the coinage of a Cent cost of 1.65 cents more than the coin is afterwards value. According to a response from the Ministry of Finance on a request of the Greens in Germany 2018, approximately 453 million were minted-Cent pieces and 479 million Two-Cent pieces. This means, according to the Saarbrücker Zeitung that in the past three years for the coins 416 tonnes of copper and 7026 tons of steel were needed. For Krischer is “a big waste of money, metals and energy”.
In some Euro area countries, it is common that in supermarkets and other shops, prices are rounded, not One – and Two-Cent coins. Krischer called for, to keep it in Germany as well. A first attempt to do this in North Rhine-Westphalia, however, was a failure: at the beginning of 2016 Kleve had tried on the lower Rhine, to disconnect from the micro-money. Many residents are familiar with the practice, that at the checkout is rounded, already from the far away Netherlands.
So it should be in Kleve, decided to the retailers of the city – voluntarily, without legal regulation. “Kleve is the first city in Germany, the petty cash”, was the headline at the time, the New Rhine newspaper. One and a half years later, the reporting sound quite different: The Experiment has failed, because customers wanted to continue to get rid of their One – and Two-Cent coins, and many dealers were tired of to explain the thing with the rounds. Other cities that wanted to join the project, were not found.
According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, paying with cash is more popular in Germany than elsewhere. To have the One – and Two-Cent coins, the majority of Germans are in a good relationship, writes the Ministry and justified the old proverb: “he Who does not honor the penny is a gained value.”