Swing for a ruble, hit for a penny. So they said in the yards of our childhood. Who would have thought that this phrase would accurately describe the state of money circulation in the country. A penny, that is, it is not there ... But the point is not in it, but in the new ten-ruble coin. And in a creeping denomination
The return of the penny to cash circulation in 1997 was an extremely pompous event and was accompanied by reports in honor of the victory over inflation and promises to prevent new zeros from appearing on banknotes. The civil memorial service for a penny, which began in March 2008, is muffled and stupid. But it performs its main function - it provides a smokescreen over a really serious problem in the field of cash circulation: the massive replacement of 10-ruble bills with coins.
penny business
On March 21, Arkady Tkachuk, General Director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Goznak, on the pages of Izvestia, suddenly stated "the death of a patient". We will stop minting a penny, they say. But on March 26, already on the pages of Rossiyskaya Gazeta, he announced the resurrection of the penny in a new form: the coin will continue to be minted, but only from a new alloy. Steel and (for some reason) protected from corrosion. To be durable.
Both have their reasons.
It's time to bury a penny. First, its share in the money turnover is incomparably greater than its importance in the national economy. Here are the data from the Central Bank. The smallest Russian coins account for 35% of all coins minted in Russia: 20% are kopecks and 15% are nickels. But the share of these coins in the total nominal value of money issued in the form of coins is only 1%. That is, if they disappear from circulation, nothing will happen.
Secondly, the cost of a penny is many times higher than its face value. Now its production costs the mint about 10 kopecks. Then there are overhead costs - the cost of delivery throughout the country, security at each stage. In general, the costs are compensated only at the expense of the ridiculous cost of thousandth and five thousandth bills.
Finally, these damned pennies cost a lot of the nerves of an army of accountants who are forced to cope monthly, as well as quarterly and annually, with ever-increasing snakes of numbers.
There are, however, reasons for not giving up a penny. Yes, let the unloved child of the mint be thrown away by everyone who is not too lazy: sellers, bank tellers and controllers-cashiers in public transport. Let the penny coins produced and put into circulation never return to the Central Bank. And some people do their little business on this, collecting them and scrapping them. (At least, Georgy Luntovsky, First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, has been telling everyone about such people for several years in a row.)
But a penny is a political coin. Requires very careful handling. Let us recall the bloody "copper riot" in 1662, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Tishaish, the reason for which was first the replacement of a silver penny with a copper one, and then the rapid depreciation of this copper penny. Or Peter's copper 10-gram kopecks, "unsuitable for negotiation with Europe", but backed by silver and therefore helped to establish a stable domestic trade turnover. Or Soviet pennies, the only ones that were not affected by the denomination of 1961, “the most humane reform in history” (definition of the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of the USSR of May 8 of the same 1961).
So now the question of whether to continue or stop minting a penny is more politically motivated than economically. Do not disturb the people who believed in the mantras about stabilizing and improving life. And vice versa, it is even worth distracting him from more pressing problems. At least those that, as if under a magnifying glass, appear in other news about the manufacture of cash.
Zabronzovela
Namely, the replacement of ten-ruble bills with ten-ruble coins announced by the same general director of Goznak, Arkady Tkachuk. The rationale for this step is purely economic. Like, the service life of a paper bill of 10 rubles is from seven to nine months, and a coin serves up to 10 years. And in order not to incur unnecessary losses, Goznak will mint ten rubles.
Why economic considerations, discarded in the case of a penny, suddenly turned out to be so important in relation to a dozen - God knows. But if the abolition of the kopeck (potentially) is only a statement of inflation that does not affect the trade turnover, then the introduction of a ten-ruble coin is already a completely independent and noticeable inflationary factor.
Moreover, a factor that works from two sides at once: both the seller and the buyer. Retail business owners, faced with the massive emergence of new coins, will most likely begin the process of rounding prices to ten. At the same time, new tens are an extra headache for them: metallic money is not accepted for collection.
Consumers, psychologically inclined to part with coins more easily than with rubles, will not pay much attention to a sudden increase in prices for their favorite newspaper, for example, from 7 to 10 rubles. Pencils, pens, seeds - all for 10. And the ruble is about to take the place of a penny in wallets and on price tags.
That is, in addition to the rise in food prices already understood and accepted by everyone, in addition to the hidden, but already ready to break free, rise in gasoline prices, inflation will also be spurred on by coins. As well as bills: ATMs are already giving out the 5,000th bill with might and main, and the issue of the 10,000th bill is just around the corner.
In general, despite the January assurances of the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank, Georgy Luntovsky, despite the February oaths of President Putin, accompanied by an expression of readiness to eat earth from a flower pot, the actual, creeping denomination is still approaching. And since the population of Russia back in 1998 began to confuse denomination (announced in 1997 and carried out in January 1998) and devaluation (announced in August 1998 and happened at the same time), and even implicitly used to consider any changes in monetary circulation as confiscation, - today's rumors about a penny and news about a dozen are becoming an explosive mixture in a bottle with the inscription "monetary reform". There have been quite a few of these in recent years (see the marginal note), and they mostly led to mass impoverishment of the population and an increase in distrust of the authorities. Especially considering the fact that immediately before the next monetary reform, the authorities stubbornly deny its very possibility.
December 1947 Denomination in one bottle with confiscation. One zero disappeared from the money, the exchange of old money for new was carried out within one week. Deposits in Sberbank were recalculated at a preferential rate: depending on the amount, in proportions from one to one to one (new) to two (staper).
January 1961 Denomination. One zero disappeared from the money, the exchange continued from January 1, 1961 to April 1, 1961. Deposits in Sberbank were recalculated at the rate of one to ten. Shop prices followed the denomination; there was no similar decline in collective-farm markets.
January 1991 Exchange with confiscation, or "Pavlovian reform". Within three days it was possible to exchange old 50 and 100 ruble bills for new ones. The maximum amount allowed for exchange is 500 rubles. The maximum amount that could be withdrawn in cash at Sberbank was 500 rubles. Deposits in Sberbank are frozen for a year, and since April, prices have begun to rise throughout the country.
July - August 1993 Exchange of banknotes with confiscation. Soviet money changed to Russian within two weeks. Citizens of Russia could exchange amounts up to 100 thousand rubles. The exchange was carried out at the place of residence, and in the summer, when many of the Russians were on vacation.
January 1998 Denomination without confiscation. Three zeros have disappeared from the banknotes. Millions of poor millionaires in Russia have simply become poor people.
