One could believe that the decreasing use of coins in our daily transactions is just a detail, an adjustment, a matter of habit.
One might think that the decreasing use of coins in our daily transactions is just a detail, an adjustment, a matter of habit. But behind this subtle phenomenon lies a more fundamental question: what happens to money when it ceases to be used?
In our public markets, our shops, our public transportation… five-gourde coins are increasingly less accepted. Those of one gourde and less (50, 20, and 5 cents) are, for their part, categorically refused without even having been officially withdrawn from circulation by the Central Bank.This reality is accompanied by another, even more subtle phenomenon: the gradual loss of precision reflex in transactions. Amounts are adjusted, differences absorbed, and accuracy gradually ceases to be a requirement. In an economic system, however, what becomes optional often eventually disappears. It is therefore not only the coin that is rejected, but the very function of small change that ceases to exist in the system. The consequences go far beyond the scope of small change. Amounts are often rounded up, creating a form of diffuse overpricing which, through repeated occurrences, can contribute to a silent inflationary pressure. In the short term, this makes everyday small purchases more expensive; in the medium term, it normalizes discrepancies and gradually weakens precision in price formation.
