melitikus wrote:You mean that they are still producing large quantities of 1c and 2c?
why do they still have to continue to produce them ?
In each of the last four years (2005-2008) of coin production, the 1c and 2c coins accounted for the second highest in quantity produced of all the other Dutch Euro coins and the highest in the first five years (1999-2004). The total number of 1c and 2c Dutch coins produced so far account for more than the total quantities of all the mid-value coin quantities (nordic gold coins) ever produced and six times the quantity of the Dutch 1e coin.
There are clear provisions for how many coins produced for circulation can be allocated for collector cards and sets.
Having sixteen countries all issuing the same eight denominations of the same currency requires a very delicate and well balanced equation in order to prevent devaluation or inflation and deflation. Especially taking into account the cost to produce coins. 1e and 2e coins cost more to produce out of them all. Next are the copper low value coins and least costly are the nordic gold mid-value coins. Banknotes are so much easier to mitigate cost and maintain balance of value. Coins on the other hand are a different story.
If too many of one denomination, even the 1c coins are issued by even one of the NCBs, it may throw the balance out of whack and the currency begins to loose value. If not enough of a denomination are issued by another NCB, the currency begins to inflate. Although we, the EU, and those of us in the EMU appear to be one country, there are still sixteen individual national banks that have to account for their individual holdings and GDP- we are not one economy, but one economic union of sixteen economies.
While the argument could be made that for every three 5c coins that are produced, five 1c and five 2c coins do not have to be produced. The problem then becomes what is known as the 'ghostly decimal'. While those of us in the Netherlands can safely purchase something at the store that is €1.02 and simply hand over a 1e coin and be done with it, banks can not do the same. Each and every 1c and 2c and all the other denominated coins are carefully accounted for and each NCB who has issued them duly holds their value. In other words, chaos would ensue if the Netherlands suddenly stopped issuing 1c and 2c coins because there would be no way of accounting for the trillions of transactions that occur across the country which end in €0.01, €0.02, €0.03 and €0.04.
If you take even a transaction ending in €0.01 and multiply it by 1 000 000 000 000, you will have enough Euro to purchase eight Lamborghini cars each day for the next year. While this might be appealing to some, the EMU would collapse and we'd have to dig out our old bags of Guilders that we're keeping for posterity, break the mugs we bought with a Guilder encased at the bottom, melt the plastic surrounding tienjes and dubletjes from our key rings and take all those pretty 50 Guilder notes out of their frames and start using those instead- because the Euro would cease to exist as a viable currency. I hear the Italians gather regularly for bonfires of their old Lira papermoney devalued by the bank; the Finns have made a sport out of shooting at their old Maarka coins; the Germans bury old pfennigs by oak trees. Can you imagine what life in Europe would be like if we had to go back to our old currencies?!
Hence, every Member State must produce enough of the 1c and 2c coins to account for the 'ghostly decimal' in transactions. Or else, the Euro will fail. It is actually a bit more complicated than that, but this is one of the most basic reasons, and I figured it was the one most suited to answer your question...
Did any of that just make sense, or did I start talking like a crazy man again?
