Central Bank eliminates one cent coins July 1

At Central Bank’s first public session at its office in Port of Spain, Manager of Banking Operations, Sharon Villafana explained the reason for their decision to do so was to save money for the country.

The cost of minting the one cent coin is about 21 cents for each one.

“We know overtime there will be less and less one cent coins in circulation therefore you the public would have less coins available to complete your cash payments. To facilitate this, the Central Bank has decided to introduce some guidelines to help the public. These guidelines will be voluntary and they will help the public to be able to complete cash transactions with certainty,” she said.

The Bank will issue guidelines to help the public understand the rounding process which will be used by vendors.

“Rounding really is a lesser or a greater adjustment of a final cash payment to the nearest five or ten cents. So what these guidelines are going to be doing is to assist vendors and consumers to have a common basis to treat with the absence of a one cent,” she said.

In the initial phase, the rounding process will be voluntary as the one cent will still be “legal tender”. She said the rounding guidelines will only apply to cash payments.

“Rounding guidelines are not to be applied where the consumer already has one cents that is in his possession that are sufficient to complete the exact amount payable.” If a vendor wishes to round but the consumer still has reservations, Villafana said the vendor should attempt to provide exact change to the consumer.

“If the vendor however does not have the exact change to provide and insist on using rounding the customer has some choices.

The customer may, if they have the exact amount, tender the exact amount payable or they can opt to pay for the items using other forms of non cash payment,” she said.

With these rounding guidelines, Villafana said pricing on individual items should not be changed.

“Rounding applies to the total payment at the end of a transaction, inclusive of all duties and taxes,” she said.

Citizens can also expect new five, ten and 25 cent coins from July 1. The Bank changed the composition of the coins because it was costing more to make than the value of the coin. As a result, the coins will no longer be pure alloy but mixed metal.

“This is much more cost effective for us to be able to produce a good quality coin for the use by the public as well as reduce cost.

The new coins will look and feel the same, the design, the size the weight will remain consistent with our current coins in circulation.

The old coins will continue to be legal tender and the intention is to have these coins co-mingle in the environment,” she said.