News in Brief

Belgium Seeks More Coin Circulation

Belgium is one of many countries with a coin circulation problem, and the Treasury has launched a social media campaign – #spendyourchange – encouraging citizens to use their loose change.

There are currently more than 4.2 billion coins in circulation in Belgium, with an estimated value of more than €1.5 billion.

Belgium has been rounding prices to the nearest five cents since 2014 and made this rounding obligatory for cash purposes in 2019, leading to the end of production of Belgian 1 and 2 cent euro coins.

Businesses still have to accept the two lowest coin denominations as legal tender.

The #spendyourchange campaign comes after warnings of coin shortages from a number of key trade federations in Belgium, who issued a joint statement back in 2022 on the hoarding of 5, 10 and 20 cent coins, stating that they weren’t (and evidently still aren’t) circulating enough – a situation exacerbated by the pandemic that has not subsequently recovered.