THERE IS NO need to rush to the bank with one-cent coins to beat the May 7 date when they will no longer be issued.
That is the advice from currency officer at the Central Bank of Barbados, Sherri Bishop, who told the DAILY NATION the coins would eventually go out of circulation by natural means.
Bishop reiterated that the cent remained legal tender and people could still deposit them at commercial banks and spend them with retailers. However, retailers would not be reissuing them as change to consumers.
“So no need to rush at all. They will come out of circulation in the natural order of things.
The major issue would be that we won’t be issuing them anymore, which means commercial banks won’t be issuing them anymore, and retailers won’t be giving them back as change anymore. But certainly you can continue to spend them and obviously if you’re going to exchange them at the commercial bank, it would have to be in increments of five because they would need to be able to give you a five cents, or whatever the case may be,” she explained.
