Downing Street said 1p and 2p coins are not being phased out in the UK after Donald Trump ordered an end to minting one cent coins.
The US president said he had told the Treasury Department to stop producing new pennies.
“For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful!” Trump wrote in a post Sunday night on his Truth Social site.
Asked about the move and whether 1p and 2p coins would remain in Britain, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Yes, there are no plans to change our policy.”
This followed stories swirling on social media that they were being phased out.
“We are not scrapping any coins,” a Treasury spokesman said at the time.
“With estimates there are approximately 27 billion in circulation in the UK, many of which will be 1p and 2ps, we are confident there are enough coins in the system to meet demand.”
The Royal Mint, which produces all the coins of the UK, did not make any new two pence coins in the 2022/23, 2019/20 and 2018/19 financial years, according to its annual report .
It also did not produce any new one penny coins in 2022/23 and 2018/19.
In 2018, a Treasury consultation document raised questions about the future of lower denomination coins. “Surveys suggest that six in ten 1p and 2p coins are used in a transaction once before they leave the cash cycle,” it said.
The proportion of UK retail payments involving cash fell from 52.57% in 2013 to 18.76% in 2022, according to a survey by the British Retail Consortium.
The share of transactions with debit cards rose from 32.37% to 61.42% over the same period.
Trump has had a storming start to his second term in the White House with a string of controversial decisions including threats to impose tariffs on many countries.
