Two-thirds of Lithuanians support giving up small coins: survey

The coins will not be taken out of circulation, however, and will continue to be accepted for payment.

VILNIUS, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Over two-thirds, or 69 percent, of Lithuanians would back a decision to phase out 1 and 2-cent coins and round off cash payments. Twenty-nine percent would be against it, while the rest have no opinion, according to a new Eurobarometer survey recently, the Baltic News Service (BNS) reported.

The number of those in favour of rounding up has gone up by 3 percentage points over the year, while the number of opponents has dropped by 2 points, according to the Bank of Lithuania.

According to Eurobarometer data, 56 percent of the population in Latvia is in favour of rounding off cash payments to the nearest multiple of five cents, compared to 73 percent in Estonia which has introduced the measure as of January.

The average support for giving up the smallest coins in eurozone countries is 61 percent.

Last March, the Lithuanian parliament, Seimas, adopted a law on rounding off the sums of cash payments from May 2025, thus gradually phasing out the use of 1 and 2-cent coins.

The coins will not be taken out of circulation, however, and will continue to be accepted for payment.

According to the data of the Bank of Lithuania, the value of 1 and 2-cent coins lost in Lithuania since the introduction of the euro in 2015 exceeds 2 million euros (2.06 million U.S. dollars). (1 euro = 1.03 U.S. dollar) ■