Are pennies pointless? The debate returns as the Bank of England says getting rid of 1p and 2p coins wouldn't cause inflation.
What it means: Back in March, Chancellor Philip Hammond suggested that removing 1p and 2p coins might make sense. It costs almost as much to make them as it does coins with higher value, and 60% are only used once and never again.
(Fun fact: you're only allowed to use 1p coins in batches of 20p: any more would be breaking the 'Legal Coinage Act' of 1971, which states "Do not piss people off by piling 21+ pennies on their counter", or something along those lines.)
But Hammond's proposal caused backlash among penny lovers across the country. Some said we'd be ridding ourselves of 1,000 years of history. Others were worried the price of everything currently ending in .99 would go up by 1p.
But the Bank of England says that's unlikely to happen. Shops could simply round up the bill at the end of a purchase by 1p, and not price any new items as ending in .99. Only 3% of shopping is done in cash, of which 12% is for products ending in .99 - so we're talking a miniscule number of transactions anyway.
