RETAILERS are now assured of having enough coins circulating in the market following the central bank's deployment of coin deposit machines in malls to promote efficient coin recirculation in the country.
"This is a good project that should have been done five years ago to avoid lack of coins in supermarkets," said retailer Robert Go, also spokesperson of the Philippine Retailers Association-Cebu Chapter.
"This could be good for us retailers since we lack coins all the time, especially in provinces," he said. "We have to go to churches to buy the coins at higher amount to get priority."
On Tuesday, June 20, 2023, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Gov. Felipe Medalla led the unveiling of the first set of coin deposit machines deployed in SM Mall of Asia in Pasay, Robinsons Malls Ermita in Manila, and Festival Supermall in Muntinlupa.
Through this machine, the BSP encourages the public to deposit their idle coins stored in their jars, piggy banks and other containers.
The coin deposit machines accept all denominations (i.e., 1-, 5-, 10-, and 25-centavo; and 1-, 5-, 10-, and 20-peso) of the BSP Coin Series and the New Generation Currency Coin Series.
By depositing idle coins into these machines, Medalla, in his Twitter post said, depositors can receive the corresponding value in their e-wallet through GCash or store vouchers that are as good as cash.
The BSP chief said the total number of coins in circulation—whether inside pockets or stored or perhaps even forgotten—reached 39.1 billion by end-April 2023.
"That translates to an average of 358 coins per Filipino. This figure is nearly triple the 121 coins per capita in 2005," he said.
"Despite the sheer number of coins in circulation, we face an 'artificial' coin shortage due to various reasons, but in some cases, it's because some coins are left idle. Ideally, coins should change hands weekly, but that doesn't seem to be the case," Medalla said.
According to Medalla, a total of 25 machines will be deployed in the Greater Manila area from June to August 2023 as part of the initial roll-out.
The BSP in Cebu hasn't received word yet from its headquarters in Manila if it would also deploy coin deposit machines in malls in Cebu.
Go said retail players will definitely participate in this initiative as it will facilitate sales transactions.
"We always lack coins for cashiers to give change. Cebu City might use credit cards but not in provinces. All our stores in provinces have credit card facilities, but usage is much less than in the city," said Go.
Amid efforts to promote online payments, he said cash remains king, especially in the sari-sari store segment.
"Online (transactions) is still less than five percent of total transactions due to the sprouting of sari-sari stores," said Go.
Medalla said the project also aims to help the central bank reduce costs of minting coins.
"Printing a P1,000 banknote costs only P7. On the other hand, coins are more expensive because their face value is so low but the production cost is high. Plus, coins are not being recirculated properly, thus making the minting of a P20-centavo coin more expensive than printing a P1,000 banknote," said Medalla.
"Using technology to recirculate coins is cheaper than minting more," he added.
Aside from GCash, the BSP is working with electronic money issuer Maya to join the project to provide more options to the public.
