http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21328892

Ben Fogle wanted them taken out of circulation over here on Room 101 the other week... do you use them or do they just build up in your house or whatever?

I only have a handful I go into shops so little

I save them and bank them. All that will happen is that without them the prices of goods will simply increase, and without any benefit.

I'd say ditch the 2p rather than 1p coins.

It would be crazy only having a 2p in copper. What happens when you pay 6p in twos for something that costs 5p or whatever? You'd have to change five twos for two fives, which wouldn't work if you didn't have them.

If we ditched copper altogether, then that could work but you'd only be able to buy penny sweets five at a time...

Yes but for most goods that are £1.99 or £1.97 they will all be increased to £2

There are psychological reasons why shops don't do that already. The same reason petrol is always something point nine pence.

They'd probably put it up to £2.98 since the £2 barrier is already broken! So that's two pound, a fifty, two twenties, a five, two twos and... oh bugger I need a penny change!

They should just stop making money full stop. Who uses it these days anyway?

Small shops that can't afford the fees unfortunately.

I'd have no objection to them dropping both the 1 and 2 p coins so we just had 5, 10, 20 and 50. Much simpler and less hassle to carry around.

These Youtube vids about pennies (albeit the US and Canadian ones) are rather good IMHO:

Death to Pennies
Canada Gets Rid of the Penny (Huzzah!)

I suspect in reality most prices would actually go down to £whatever.95 rather than going up to the next nearest pound plus £0.95, certainly for things were being under the nearest pound is psychologically important. I doubt the majority of people would accept a rounding increase of nearly a pound. Doesn't mean some greedy chancer wouldn't give it a try but I suspect the loss of business would make them change their minds fairly quickly.

Surely if we were dropping the 1p coin it'd make sense to drop the 5p coin as well, and then just have 2p as the minimal denomination for our currency?

Personally I don't mind pennies - they either get chucked into charity pots at tills or bagged up and dropped off at the bank with all my other coinage.

It might make sense to scrap the coppers and round all prices to nearest 5p.

What we call "coppers" are steel with a copper electro coating. Until about 1986 they were made of bronze with a copper coating. They're actually getting to the point where the coin's face value is less than the cost of producing it.

I wouldn't miss the shrapnel, if pennies, twos and fives were dropped. I see five pence coins on the pavement, where people have dropped them and not even bothered to pick them up.

Drop the 1p and the 2p and have a new 3p coin?

Mark

or a 99p coin

Ewwwwww!

Yes but why should we subsidise the 99p store by providing its own coins? Though they could not call themselves "Another Poundland" or could they?