This seems to be a spreading trend this month... http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-...ould-have-1-5-and-10-fils-coins-says-ministry
UAE is a different country , I live in the neighboring Bahrain. But the value / exchange rate of 1 fils is the same. 1 Fils = 0.0027 US$ = 0.27 of a US cent. 5 Fils = 0.0136 US$ = 1.36 cents 10 Fils = 0.027 US$ = 2.7 cents 25 Fils = 0.068 US$ = 6.8 cents 50 Fils = 0.136 US$ = 13.6 cents 100 Fils = 0.27 US$ = 27 cents now the cheapest thing that I can think of is a government backed bread, it costs 20 Fils. a coke costs 150 Fils I think they should cancel the 1,5,10 and replace the 25 with a 20 Fils coin.
From that article: In the Netherlands those small coins (1 and 2 cent) are still legal tender. But Dutch law allows store to round the cash totals, and most places do that. In those cases, the smallest denomination needed is a 5 cent piece. Ah yes, right. The US actually phased the half cent out in 1857. Christian
As far as I know, both the UAE dirham and the Bahrain dinar (like most GCC countries or currencies) are pegged to the US dollar, so it does indeed make sense to assume that the dirham/dinar exchange rate will not change. Question is, how soon and where will the currency union come? I read that the UAE plan to stay out (at least initially), so while for Bahrain it may be reasonable to not change the "cash setup" until then, the scenario for the UAE may be different. But the small change issue was or is a problem elsewhere too (e.g. Argentina or India). In my opinion it is OK if the government does it the Dutch way, for example, with cash totals being rounded. This way the customer does not get cheated, as rounding means rounding up or down (e.g. 8/9/0/1/2 > 0 and 3/4/5/6/7 > 5). If however the merchant simply says, sorry, no small change, you will pay more ... that does sound like chaeting. Christian
Financial union will not happen any time soon, and with problems in the Euro system I do no think that it will happen at all. as for rounding, it can be avoided, small shops do not use fractions 25 fils is minimum for anything so you will not see an item that costs 35 or 70 fils etc, big super markets can do the same "of course the exception is the bread, and it is sold in "specialist" shops / bakers.
Yes, would make a lot of sense to either round totals ... or have prices that "fit", as you mentioned. By the way, I just noticed that the newspaper has a second story about this here http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-...d-be-costing-uae-consumers-up-to-dh41m-a-year, and an "op-ed" comment here http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/editorial/scrap-small-coins-to-simplify-life. That second one suggests that small denominations are a nuisance. It says that, instead of forcing retailers to have lots of small denomination coins, the UAE government could rather introduce some cash rounding regulation. Sounds good. Christian
