Shortages of Coins in Belgium – War, Payment Patterns and Hoarding

The National Bank of Belgium is encouraging citizens to flush out their low denomination coins and exchange them as quickly as possible, due to shortages of the 5 and 10 cents in particular.

A lack of raw materials to mint replacements, particularly copper, is one reason given. The war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed against Russia, which is the eighth largest exporter copper, is blamed.

But so too is hoarding, along with a drop in cash payments since the pandemic, resulting in coins no longer being returned and redistributed through retail and banking channels (in a similar situation to the US, whose measures to address the problem were covered in the November issue of CMN).

According to Francis Adysn of the Belgian Ministry of Finance, which – via the Royal Belgian Mint – is responsible for the procurement of coins, these are outsourced to the Royal Dutch Mint where production of the 5 and 10 euro cent coins has come to a standstill, causing problems for shopkeepers particularly, who are running out of change.