“The production of one kopeck costs almost five times more than its face value.”
Small denominations have outlived their usefulness, it is high time to abandon coins of one, five and 10 kopecks and leave only 50 kopecks, Vladislav Inozemtsev, director of the Center for Research of Post-Industrial Society, is convinced. According to him, the problem is related to the peculiarity of retail trade: goods are sold by weight, which gives rise to fractional figures. In reality, pennies are not used anywhere and are not needed by anyone, especially in the context of a total transition to cashless payments.
Meanwhile, as it turned out from a survey of the Association of Banks of Russia, every fifth bank in Russia (21.6%) is experiencing difficulties in providing the regions with coins, and not only with kopecks. Another problem most (78%) of credit institutions consider the situation with the import, storage and speed of cash disbursement in the regions in the event of the closure of cash settlement centers of the Central Bank, which is provided for by the regulator’s strategy.
The state introduced denominations of one, five and 10 kopecks as part of the monetary reform of 1998, Inozemtsev recalled in an interview with MK. Then the scale of prices was completely different, and the reform had both economic and socio-political meaning. In particular, a huge mass of citizens felt nostalgia for small Soviet coins. Much water has flowed under the bridge since then, the country has gone through several stages of devaluation of its national currency, the real value of the ruble has decreased in relation to the dollar about twelve times, and the purchasing power – twenty times.
“Today the penny does not perform any function, its meaning has disappeared,” Inozemtsev argues. – Moreover, at the cash desks in stores, the amounts are rounded, and change has not been given out in kopecks for a long time. De facto, the problem is not worth a damn, since life itself has solved it. Plus, in Russia, a large number of services, such as payment for railway tickets, are systematically carried out through terminals, various types of machines. “
In addition, there is a purely production factor, unique in the international dimension, which cannot be dismissed: the cost of producing 1 kopeck is approximately 461% of the nominal, 5 kopecks – 144%, 10 kopecks – 227%. Further, they are noticeably less: for 50 kopecks – this is 67%, 1 ruble – 58%, 2 rubles – 45%, 5 rubles – 19%.
“For comparison, the funds invested in the production of 1 euro cent are 15% of the specified nominal value, 2 euro cents – 10%, 5 euro cents – 5%, 20 euro cents – 12%, 50 euro cents – 6%. Today, in the Old World, coins of one and two cents are no longer printed, they left a minimum denomination of five cents. Why shouldn’t Russia learn from this experience? ”Asks Inozemtsev.
In the Soviet Union, the average salary was 100 rubles, that is, 10 thousand kopecks. Now – 32 thousand rubles, about 3 million kopecks. Accordingly, the expert summarizes, the price of the issue in reality has fallen dozens of times, while the topic of ultra-small cash is unjustifiably mythologized and overblown these days.
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