Coinless Society

Many people around the world are familiar with coins. For so many years, coins have been used for various economic activities like buying things and making payments together with banknotes.

Coins used to be good friends of children as seeing their piggy banks fill up with the increasing number of coins in them took a part of their happiness. They bought a lot of things they want, including snacks and even cheap toys, using coins they get from elders.

The development of technology has changed methods for payment. Credit cards and debit cards are widely used and most people nowadays just carry their cards and a few banknotes in their wallets or handbags. However, the use of plastic money is already becoming old-fashioned as making payments digitally with the Internet and mobile devices is becoming the latest trend. Global IT giants are putting much effort on it.

Under such circumstance, it is becoming more and more difficult to find coins around. There are also fewer people using them. The use of coins is now even expected to fade out in the near future as authorities are taking steps to create societies without coins.

Recently, the Bank of Korea announced that it is currently studying measures to introduce what can be called a “coinless society” in a few years. The Central Bank of Korea believes that it is high time to consider reducing the usage of coins first as alternative methods of payment using plastic money like credit cards and mobile devices are getting more and more popular.

If a coinless society is realized, the government can save a lot of money and other resources such as metal used to produce new coins. Coins also take up space in pockets, bags, and drawers. The weight of many coins piled in places like banks is another reason to welcome the idea of not using coins anymore.

Some of the advanced economies in Europe are already restricting the use of cash to promote the use of alternative payment methods and eventually create cashless system. The cases of these countries may be referred to by the Central Bank to introduce the most appropriate model for Korea.

According to reports, a plan under review is about using a prepaid card where consumers can keep loose change after they make a purchase. The value of coins will be loaded into their prepaid cards and there will be no need to receive actual coins. This way, sellers won’t need to have a heavy cashier’s box with different kinds of coins stored and consumers may enjoy the convenience of not carrying coins in the pockets, with lesser possibilities of losing them easily.

Although coins will not totally disappear in the near future, turning to a coinless society seems to have become an irreversible trend. How well people can adjust to the new system will be significant for the economy, with the development of the fin-tech sector.