KINGSTON, Sept. 13 (JIS):
Cabinet has approved a proposal to withdraw the one-cent, 10-cent and 25-cent coins from circulation.
Making the announcement at today’s (September 13) post-Cabinet press briefing, Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid said the move is pursuant to subsections 16 (1) and 16 (3) of the Bank of Jamaica Act.
He said the coin denominations that would exist, thereafter, subject to Bank of Jamaica’s timeline for implementation, would be the $1, $5, $10, and $20.
Senator Reid said the proposal and approval come against the background of an assessment showing that the use of the lower-three denominations has been decreasing since 2005.
He added that details of a cost-efficiency assessment also showed that manufacturing costs consistently exceeded the face value of the coins.
