In message , Neil Williams 
 writes
>On another note, though, I would like to see the abolition of the 1p 
>and 2p coins as the Dutch have done with the 1 and 2 euro-cent coins. 
>There is hardly a need for them these days.

Are they allowed to do that when they are valid elsewhere in the EU?
-- 
Steve Fitzgerald has now left the building.
You will find him in London's Docklands, E16, UK
(please use the reply to address for email)

"Roland Perry"  wrote in message 
news:dqIWfVKwBpWIFArg@perry.co.uk...
> In message , at 10:55:40 on Thu, 19 Jun 2008, Dik T. 
> Winter  remarked:
>> > >On another note, though, I would like to see the abolition of the 1p
>> > >and 2p coins as the Dutch have done with the 1 and 2 euro-cent coins.
>> > >There is hardly a need for them these days.
>> >
>> > Are they allowed to do that when they are valid elsewhere in the EU?
>>
>>The 1 and 2 cent coins are accepted but that is just about all.  Moreover,
>>when paying in cash the total amount to pay is rounded to the nearest
>>multiple of 5 cent (which is allowed *), so you will never receive 1 and
>>2 cent coins.
>
> Half an hour ago a Dutch bureau de change gave me a 97 cents, rather than 
> the 96 cents they calculated they owed me. The change included one each of 
> 2c and 5c.
>
> So it seems the Dutch have not abolished the 2c after all.
>

Can they actually abolish it in their country, however? It's one monetary 
system, which is used by 15 states.

In article  Roland Perry  writes:
 > In message , at 10:55:40 on Thu, 19 Jun 2008, Dik T. 
 > Winter  remarked:
 > > > >On another note, though, I would like to see the abolition of the 1p
 > > > >and 2p coins as the Dutch have done with the 1 and 2 euro-cent coins.
 > > > >There is hardly a need for them these days.
 > > >
 > > > Are they allowed to do that when they are valid elsewhere in the EU?
 > >
 > >The 1 and 2 cent coins are accepted but that is just about all.  Moreover,
 > >when paying in cash the total amount to pay is rounded to the nearest
 > >multiple of 5 cent (which is allowed *), so you will never receive 1 and
 > >2 cent coins.
 > 
 > Half an hour ago a Dutch bureau de change gave me a 97 cents, rather 
 > than the 96 cents they calculated they owed me. The change included one 
 > each of 2c and 5c.

Individual shops may do it differently, but what I wrote is the general
situation.

 > So it seems the Dutch have not abolished the 2c after all.

Neither have the Fins.  But neither the Dutch nor the Fins do mint those
coins.  And neither Finland nor in the Netherlands do they really
circulate.  I have a 2 cent coin in my pocket that is there since I was
in Belgium, last October.
-- 
dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj  amsterdam, nederland, +31205924131
home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn  amsterdam, nederland; http://www.cwi.nl/~dik/

Roland Perry  wrote in
news:7hhvN3bV$2WIFAeX@perry.co.uk: 

> In message <EiB6k.66908$Ek2.38968@newsfe17.ams2>, at 23:43:47 on Thu,
> 19 Jun 2008, hounslow3@yahoo.co.uk remarked:
>>> So it seems the Dutch have not abolished the 2c after all.
>>
>>Can they actually abolish it in their country, however?
> 
> I don't know. I was simply reporting that it was, in fact, still in 
> circulation, despite reports to the contrary.
> 
>> It's one monetary system, which is used by 15 states.
> 
> I'm going to France soon and I'll see what the situation is there.

I was in St Omer (northern France) last Saturday, and when buying in the
market, they (consistently) priced with a resolution of 1c and totalled
the bill precisely, but then only charged me the price rounded down to a
5c multiple.  So for example, item A was weighed and labelled as 1.28
euro, item B was labelled at 1.59 euro, the total was 2.87 euro and they
gave 15c change from 3 euro. 

I imagine they would accept 1c and 2c coins, but I didn't try.

Peter

-- 
Peter Campbell Smith ~ London ~ pjcs00 (a) gmail.com

"Tim Roll-Pickering"  wrote in
news:6bvdbgF3be6c6U1@mid.individual.net: 

> I also wonder what happened to anyone's bank balance that ended in ½p.

My recollection is that the bank current accounts didn't handle ½p amounts 
ever.  

Long before I had a bank account they had stopped allowing ½d balances, so 
you couldn't, for example, write a cheque for £1.2s.6½d.  At 
decimalisation, there was an approved 'whole penny' conversion scale and 
the banks used that to convert every balance on D-day to a whole number of 
new pence.  So you were never able to write cheques for, eg, £1.23½.

To get slightly back to topic, I don't remember any train fares costing odd 
halfpennies (my monthly child season was 4s 11d which was 1/3 of the adult 
rate), but I do remember when the Edinburgh buses (and trams) abolished the 
last halfpenny fare by putting the child rate up from 1½d to 2d -- it would 
be around 1955.  I put in a correspondingly inflation-linked claim for a 
pocket money increase.  

After that fare increase, the maximum adult bus fare in Edinburgh was 6d, 
and that was also the maximum fare that the ticket machines could print.

Peter

-- 
Peter Campbell Smith ~ London ~ pjcs00 (a) gmail.com

Peter Campbell Smith wrote:

> I was in St Omer (northern France) last Saturday, and when buying in the
> market, they (consistently) priced with a resolution of 1c and totalled
> the bill precisely, but then only charged me the price rounded down to a
> 5c multiple.  So for example, item A was weighed and labelled as 1.28
> euro, item B was labelled at 1.59 euro, the total was 2.87 euro and they
> gave 15c change from 3 euro. 
> 
> I imagine they would accept 1c and 2c coins, but I didn't try.
> 
The strange thing about France is that several years after going over to 
the Euro, many bills and credit card slips still have the amount in 
francs as well as euros. I am not sure why this is.

Peter Beale

"Peter Beale"  wrote in message 
news:6c26rrF3epjk2U1@mid.individual.net...
> Peter Campbell Smith wrote:
>
>> I was in St Omer (northern France) last Saturday, and when buying in the
>> market, they (consistently) priced with a resolution of 1c and totalled
>> the bill precisely, but then only charged me the price rounded down to a
>> 5c multiple.  So for example, item A was weighed and labelled as 1.28
>> euro, item B was labelled at 1.59 euro, the total was 2.87 euro and they
>> gave 15c change from 3 euro. I imagine they would accept 1c and 2c coins, 
>> but I didn't try.
>>
> The strange thing about France is that several years after going over to 
> the Euro, many bills and credit card slips still have the amount in francs 
> as well as euros. I am not sure why this is.
>
> Peter Beale
Whilst the French were still using the franc, most people of my acquaintance 
in rural France still referred to land and property values in old francs 
(which hadn't been around for at least forty years)- very disconcerting when 
one heard of something costing X million (centimes). I think they like to 
keep some point of reference to pre-existing values, so they've got 
something to complain about....
Brian

On Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:11:59 +0100, Peter Beale 
wrote:

>The strange thing about France is that several years after going over to 
>the Euro, many bills and credit card slips still have the amount in 
>francs as well as euros. I am not sure why this is.

There was a legal requirement for amounts to be expressed in both
currencies, although I am not sure if that is still in force.  But, as
you noted, in practice this is still done.  My bank statements are
also still in both francs and euros.

"Dik T. Winter"  wrote in message 
news:K2rCGE.87n@cwi.nl...
> In article  Roland Perry 
>  writes:
> > In message , at 10:55:40 on Thu, 19 Jun 2008, Dik T.
> > Winter  remarked:
> > > > >On another note, though, I would like to see the abolition of the 
> > > > >1p
> > > > >and 2p coins as the Dutch have done with the 1 and 2 euro-cent 
> > > > >coins.
> > > > >There is hardly a need for them these days.
> > > >
> > > > Are they allowed to do that when they are valid elsewhere in the EU?
> > >
> > >The 1 and 2 cent coins are accepted but that is just about all. 
> > >Moreover,
> > >when paying in cash the total amount to pay is rounded to the nearest
> > >multiple of 5 cent (which is allowed *), so you will never receive 1 
> > >and
> > >2 cent coins.
> >
> > Half an hour ago a Dutch bureau de change gave me a 97 cents, rather
> > than the 96 cents they calculated they owed me. The change included one
> > each of 2c and 5c.
>
> Individual shops may do it differently, but what I wrote is the general
> situation.
>
> > So it seems the Dutch have not abolished the 2c after all.
>
> Neither have the Fins.  But neither the Dutch nor the Fins do mint those
> coins.  And neither Finland nor in the Netherlands do they really
> circulate.  I have a 2 cent coin in my pocket that is there since I was
> in Belgium, last October.
> -- 

Because it is the European Central Bank that decides the policy on 1- and 
2-cent coins, and not the individual member states.

"Roland Perry"  wrote in message 
news:XRskR05iz+WIFAYc@perry.co.uk...
> In message , at 18:11:59 on Fri, 20 
> Jun 2008, Peter Beale  remarked:
>>The strange thing about France is that several years after going over to 
>>the Euro, many bills and credit card slips still have the amount in francs 
>>as well as euros. I am not sure why this is.
>
> It was like that originally in the Netherlands too (not French francs 
> though, of course), but it soon went away. It seemed to be linked to 
> people who hadn't had their menus and price tags reprinted into Euros yet.
> -- 

Each state had its own transition periods, in which both currencies could 
operate side by side.

BH Williams wrote:
> Whilst the French were still using the franc, most people of my acquaintance 
> in rural France still referred to land and property values in old francs 
> (which hadn't been around for at least forty years)- very disconcerting when 
> one heard of something costing X million (centimes). I think they like to 
> keep some point of reference to pre-existing values, so they've got 
> something to complain about....
> Brian 

I find it useful (and frightening) to convert from decimal currency back 
to old-fashioned pounds, shillings and pence; a small bar of chocolate 
now costs twelve shillings (60p).
Bruce

Bruce Fletcher (Stronsay, Orkney) wrote:

> I find it useful (and frightening) to convert from decimal currency
> back to old-fashioned pounds, shillings and pence; a small bar of
> chocolate now costs twelve shillings (60p).

Surely such conversions have very little use?  Unless, of course, you're
also converting your modern day wages into shillings.

-- 
Simon

Brighton
ex-Westbury, ex-Aberystwyth

sweller wrote:
> Bruce Fletcher (Stronsay, Orkney) wrote:
> 
>> I find it useful (and frightening) to convert from decimal currency
>> back to old-fashioned pounds, shillings and pence; a small bar of
>> chocolate now costs twelve shillings (60p).
> 
> Surely such conversions have very little use?  Unless, of course, you're
> also converting your modern day wages into shillings.
> 

That's exactly what I do from time to time.
Bruce

>Roland Perry  wrote in
>news:7hhvN3bV$2WIFAeX@perry.co.uk: 
>
>> In message <EiB6k.66908$Ek2.38968@newsfe17.ams2>, at 23:43:47 on Thu,
>> 19 Jun 2008, hounslow3@yahoo.co.uk remarked:
>>>> So it seems the Dutch have not abolished the 2c after all.
>>>
>>>Can they actually abolish it in their country, however?
>> 
>> I don't know. I was simply reporting that it was, in fact, still in 
>> circulation, despite reports to the contrary.
>> 
>>> It's one monetary system, which is used by 15 states.
>> 
>> I'm going to France soon and I'll see what the situation is there.
>
>I was in St Omer (northern France) last Saturday, and when buying in the
>market, they (consistently) priced with a resolution of 1c and totalled
>the bill precisely, but then only charged me the price rounded down to a
>5c multiple.  So for example, item A was weighed and labelled as 1.28
>euro, item B was labelled at 1.59 euro, the total was 2.87 euro and they
>gave 15c change from 3 euro. 

A lot of "Mom and Pop" small food stores in Metro Vancouver have
adopted that method as an unofficial way to avoid Canadian pennies.
>
>I imagine they would accept 1c and 2c coins, but I didn't try.
>
>Peter