Nearly 1 billion 1 cent coins are in circulation according to the latest BNB data. However, 1 penny cannot buy anything in our country.
As of August 31, their number was exactly 919.1 million, and if we follow the speed with which they are increasing, they will reach 1 billion by the end of the year. And since there are a total of 3.3 billion coins in circulation, every third is the little yellow penny that no one wants, writes 24 Hours.
Inflation in recent years has made the 1, 2 and 5 cent coins obsolete. In the stores, the vendors are visibly bored when they receive them and usually don’t count them. Even pensioners over the age of 70, who take their pension by hand, leave the yellow pennies, and often larger coins, to the postman to “treat himself”.
There is practically no good or service worth 1 penny on the Bulgarian market. In contrast to the time before 1989, when a “Lukche” candy cost so much and shopkeepers often used it when they didn’t have change.
And before the price increase in 1981, a local call from a street phone cost that much, then it became 2 cents.
Almost until the end of socialism, 1 kilowatt hour of electricity cost 1 penny. Now, even with the cheaper night tariff, 1 kilowatt hour costs 12 cents, but there is practically no way to pay for them separately, because hardly a person can make such a consumption.
The price of labor today is such that if the minimum wage is divided by the working hours, it turns out that a person makes 1 penny in a few seconds. Even if a person buys something in bulk, for example coffee beans, there is no way they will measure so little because the scale will not catch it.
The rounding of prices is also the reason why, at least for now, no one in Bulgaria has undertaken to withdraw the yellow pennies from circulation, bankers admit.
There are quite a few prices on the market that end in 99 cents, and if the penny ceases to be legal tender, they will have to be rounded up.
However, this would cause inflation because the statistics report prices as announced. At the very moment when we are expected to meet the inflation criteria for entry into the Eurozone within months, no one dares publicly raise the question of the fate of the smallest coin.
However, in commercial practice in our country, there are often promotions where something is sold for 1 penny in exchange for a coupon or the purchase of another product. But mostly this is a token price and not every merchant would bother to physically collect it.
Vending machines have also not accepted 1, 2 or 5 cent coins for years.
However, the 1 cent coin is legal tender. According to Article 25 paragraph 2 of the Law on the Bulgarian National Bank “banknotes and coins issued by the BNB are legal tender and must be accepted for payments in their full nominal value without restrictions”. For the violation of this article, the same law provides for a fine of 500 to 3,000 BGN, and if the offender is a legal entity or a sole trader, the fine can reach up to 30,000 BGN.
This is why sometimes angry citizens go to pay the heating bill or some fine with sacks of yellow coins collected from who knows how long ago. The opposite party has no right not to accept them. At most, they should shout at each other and try to “outdo each other on a dime”.
In fact, it is rare for anyone to collect yellow pennies in jars anymore. When the modern Bulgarian wants to empty his pockets, he throws all the coins into some container at home. Some of them, for example the 1 or 2 BGN coins, are valuable because self-service car washes work with them. Very often there are coin exchange machines there, but they don’t accept yellow pennies either.
The BNB does not provide data on how much it costs to make the Bulgarian coins. But from indirect information it can be understood that especially with denominations of 1 cent, the production of the coin costs more than its face value, or at least unjustifiably expensive.
However, a number of EU countries withdrew the €1 and €2 cent coins, the main reason everywhere being that they were more expensive to mint than their face value. For example, in Italy until 2019 they paid 4.5 cents for the production of 1 euro cent and 5.2 cents for the 2 cent coin.
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