It causes problems for entrepreneurs: they cannot give correct change if customers pay in cash. Thus the Belgian business community and Febelfin, the interest group of the financial sector, are asking Belgians to pay in cash, preferably in an appropriate way, preferably with the spared coins of 5, 10 and 20 cents.
Send to bank
Belgians who have a large stock of it are asked to hand it over to their bank. There are enough coins in circulation in the country, but they are not being used.
Another solution would be to store extra coins. Unfortunately, it’s not “easy” because there is a shortage of raw materials due to the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia.
Where there is a shortage of coins in our southern neighbors, we have a surplus. Unfortunately, we cannot help the Belgians with this. These are mainly 1 and 2 cent coins. These are seldom used in the Netherlands because they are rounded to 5 cents.
Festive harvest
Tourists who come to our country still pay with it. And the Dutch who have been on holiday in Europe bring them back with them. This has been a surplus for years. De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) also has too many 1 or 2 euro coins.
DNB is responsible for issuing euro coins in our country and must ensure that there are enough of them in circulation. The institute sells any surplus to countries where there is a shortage.
In early November, it was an exceptionally large match, destined for Croatia. That country will be a member of the eurozone from next year and will therefore need a lot of coins. DNB helped with this – as of July 1, there are no less than 70 million coins sold to the country.
These are coins of 1 and 2 cents and 1 and 2 euros. It is not known how much they were worth in total. But that doesn’t matter either, because DNB didn’t get that figure for it.
Not first prize
The institution charges the Croatian counterpart only the transport, material and production costs. The central bank doesn’t want to say how high that amount is. “This is between them and us,” a spokesman said. “It’s also lying with us, we don’t need it anymore and if you want to destroy them, that costs money too.”
