Coin shortage not due to saving

The Central Bank of the Philippines has reported that there is an acute shortage of small denomination coins in the country and that, to offset this, it has released into circulation up to a billion of these "barya" coins.

Frankly, I do not know if there is indeed a shortage of such coins. Most people I know do not know either. But since the Central Bank has said there is such a shortage, then we might as well take its word for it.

The reason I and most people do not know that there is a shortage in small denomination coins is that we hardly missed them. And the reason we hardly missed them is because they do not mean anything to us anymore.

Perhaps the smallest denominated coin that still has some practical value attached to it is the 25 centavo coin (which every cashier in the country always erroneously refers to as 25 cents). The 10 and 5 centavo coins? Nah.

But while we are willing to take the word of the Central Bank for it that there is in fact a shortage in small denomination coins, we cannot extend the bank the same privilege when it comes to the reason it offers for the shortage.

The bank says the reason for the shortage is that people are saving them in piggy banks. I could have laughed for hours at this if only the Central Bank did not sound so serious. I mean the bank apparently believes in earnest that there are still piggy banks in this day of the ATM.

Oh, so okay, let us grant for the sake of the argument that there are still piggy banks. But for God's sake, you save the bigger coins in them, the 10, 5 or even 1 peso coins, not the hapless 10 and 5 centavo coins.

For of what practical use and benefit would anyone wait years to fill up a piggy bank with 10 or 5 centavo coins? If these small denomination coins cannot buy anything now, as sure as hell they cannot buy even the memory of a fart years later.

Still, let us bend over for the sake of the argument and allow that, incredibly, despite all the forces of economics kicking in like exchange rates, depreciation, devaluation, etc., the hardy Philippine 10 and 5 centavo coins still survive.

What do we expect to buy with them? I have not actually tried to find out, but I would presume a regular size piggy bank full of 5 centavo coins would not amount to anything more than 500 pesos, and that is already stretching it.

I could not imagine anyone waiting for one year to fill up a piggy bank with 5 centavo coins just to amass 500 pesos and then, with two hands, lug the heavy darn contraption all the way to the supermarket to buy Colgate, shampoo and laundry soap.

Yet the weight is just the physical burden of it. The most cruel thing is having to endure the spectacle of dumping all the 5 centavo coins from the piggy bank at the supermarket checkout counter.

At one time or another, each one of us must have been asked by a cashier if we have this or that "cents." Well, if you dump a whole piggy bank load of 5 "cent" coins before a cashier, I bet that cashier will never ask for "cents" again.

I do not wish to give unsolicited advice to the Central Bank on monetary matters because that is not my field of expertise. But if it cares to give a listen, maybe it is time it phased out those useless coins. There is no shortage of them. They are everywhere, as good as nothing.