Is this the end of 1p and 2p coins? Royal Mint abandons around £4million worth of copper coins in warehouses across the UK as Treasury officials consider scrapping coppers altogether

The Royal Mint has abandoned around £4million worth of copper coins in warehouses across the UK.

Roughly 260 million excess 1p and 2p coins are sitting in cash centres, outnumbering those currently in circulation. This stockpile includes about 150 million 2p coins – two-thirds of the 225 million minted in the UK.

More than 110 million of the 200 million 1p coins produced have also been left.

The volume of these surplus coins is enough to fill more than 2,000 cages, each the size of a washing machine and weighing a ton.

Research suggests that more than half of the 1p and 2p coins that enter circulation are used only once before being stored in jars or discarded, with one in 12 reportedly ending up in the trash.

The Royal Mint, responsible for producing British coins, has not recycled or melted down excess coins since it shut down its smelting facility over a decade ago

The Treasury has made no orders to the Royal Mint for new coins to be minted for the first time amid a decline in cash payments, with officials considering scrapping coppers altogether

If the coins are scrapped, this would mark the first such change since 1984 when the halfpenny coin was taken out of circulation

The Royal Mint, responsible for producing British coins, has not recycled or melted down excess coins since it shut down its smelting facility over a decade ago.

Unlike the Bank of England, which replaces damaged banknotes, the Royal Mint only handles damaged coins collected by banks.

The Treasury has not commissioned any new 1p or 2p coins this year, with reports indicating that no new orders are expected for the next few years.

While 30 million 1p coins were minted in 2022, none have been produced in 2023, and the last 2p coins were made in 2021. For comparison, more than a billion pennies were minted in 2000.

A spokesman for the Royal Mint told The Daily Telegraph: ‘The Royal Mint only accepts damaged circulating coins. These are processed to ensure the value of the metal can be recovered.’

Past proposals to phase out copper coins have faced opposition, with concerns that doing so could lead to price increases as retailers round up to the nearest 5p.

Despite their declining use, cash remains the UK’s second most popular payment method after debit cards, with about 3 million people still dependent on it.