Why can't we get rid of 1p, 2p, 5p coins?

Go into a supermarket with self-service checkouts.

If it takes coins use as many as you like.

If you have overpaid it will return the excess as largest coin refund.

We can get rid of them, but the Treasury has decided not to.

If we did then prices would have to be rounded off to the nearest 5p, and you can bet your life they'd be rounded UP to the nearest 5p.

Rubbish. Prices are governed by competition between businesses. If you currently buy something in Asda for 47p, they could make it 50p, but Tesco might make it 45p and everyone would go there instead.

So even if (and it's a very big if) Tesco did reduce the price from

47p to 45p and Asda increased it to 50p then the average price of that product has increased by 0.5p.

You must have forgotten what happened in 1971 with decimalisation. Prices had to be rounded off, and in almost every case they were rounded upwards.

Rather than reducing the price to 45p, past experience has shown that both stores would increase the price to 50p.

I thought they were worth 1p, 2p, & 5p respectively.

My pint jar full of shrapnel is certainly not worthless.

So you'd also be happy with a 50 tonne jar with 0.000001p coins? At some point we have to say it just isn't worth handling such worthless coins. It's a long time since 0.5p coins went. It's high time the next ones went.

Given that a pre-1992 penny is actually worth about a penny for its metal content, I imagine a 0.000001p coin would be worth several orders of magnitude more than its face value.

Post 1992 pennies are probably worth around 0.2p, for the metal, being mainly steel.

Actually £5.99 is less than £6

If you got rid of 1p, 2p and 5p coins they'd just show it as £5.90.

I can't remember the last time I used cash in a supermarket anyway, so the issue of getting rid of small coins has got little to do with the way prices are expressed. In fact I hardly ever use cash anywhere these days, but many older people still do.

The Republic of Ireland has stopped minting 1¢ and 2¢ coins.

Supermarkets have kept the original prices and then round up or down at the till.

see:

My jar never gets to overfull. Don't you have an ice cream van around your area?