Central Banking

Central Bank of Ireland urges households to spend 2.5bn copper coins on Christmas shopping

Bank warns local shops running out of small change as coins consigned to ‘jars and money boxes'

jars coins

Ireland's central bank is urging households to spend 2.5 billion copper coins this Christmas to prevent the country's supply of small change from running out.

The Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) has issued €35.3 million in 1c and 2c coins since becoming part of the Eurosystem. The number of coins per person in Ireland is three times the eurozone average.

But the coins tend to go out of circulation quickly, the bank said, because people have a tendency to consign them to "jars and money boxes" in

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