Euro area set to cut production costs of small eurocent coins
Euro area Member States agreed on new manufacture standards for 1, 2 and 5 euro cent coins to increase cost efficiency in production.
The changes will be technical, the aspect of the coins for the public and their use in machines accepting or processing coins will remain the same in all euro area countries. The coins can be used in parallel with the 1, 2 and 5 cent coins produced with the old standards.
The changes to the current standards of these copper plated steel coins, commonly called red coins given the colour of their copper layer, will be as follows:
Firstly, the production of the blanks will be improved and production tolerances widened leading to some savings on copper.
Secondly and without changing the visual appearance of the coins, the reliefs of the coins will be slightly softened. This will reduce minting costs as the tools used for producing the coins will last longer.
The first coins produced according to these new standards will enter into circulation from 1 December 2017 onwards.