This week the government opened a public consultation looking into whether low-value coins, that is pennies, 2ps and 5ps, should be removed from circulation.

The proposal would see the rounding up or down of cash transactions, to the nearest 0p or 10p.

One of the reasons given, is that inflation has meant that it costs more to make the coins, than the coins are worth.

We asked the public what they thought.

John Blevin, from Port St Mary, said: ‘I am a pensioner. I use cash a lot and as a pensioner I have to watch what I am spending my money on.

‘I probably use card more than cash.

‘I use cash for smaller amounts, probably up to £20, and the pennies all mount up.’

Neal Mellon from Braddan was concerned about the impact that it would have on charities.

He said: ‘I can understand the problem where the value of the coin is less than the price to produce the coin , however, there are a lot of charities in the Isle of Man where bucket collections need coins to fill them up and to take those coins away would reduce the overall donations on the island, in my opinion.

‘So I think it is something that has to be watched, and carefully considered.’

Neal is the director of Isle of Man Foodbank and he added: ‘As a charity we have only just started to use card machines. We only have one and we will take it out when we do big collections but otherwise it is something that we haven’t really got into.

‘There are charities that have them but that was very much a consequence of Covid 19 rather than for financial reasons.’

He added: ‘I am absolutely a card person, so it would not impact me so much as an individual, but the impact that it would have on charities would be significant.’

Visiting from North Carolina, Emily Brown said that it is something that has been considered in the US for a while.

She said: ‘I think the US is thinking about getting rid of pennies because no one really uses them anymore, people just round up, and they are just clutter.

‘I think they were also saying that making the penny costs more than what it is worth.

‘It would not affect me at all if they got rid of low-value coins, I pretty much pay with everything on a card or my phone anyway so I think it would probably be better to reduce waste of the physical pennies.

‘I probably stopped using cash in the past five years, because everywhere accepts cards, and it is much easier to carry cards, without having to worry about losing them as much.

‘It is really rare to go into places where you have to pay cash , there are a couple of times where I have to go get spare change that I leave in my car.’

Emily said that she has not taken out cash at all throughout her trip around the British Isles.

Pippa Salter from Colby thinks that while pennies and 2ps should go, 5ps were still useful.

She said: ‘I think those 5ps do come into a lot of use sometimes, for example, they are useful for the car parking machines.

‘I am more of a card user, but I do use cash sometimes.

‘I am one of those where I have a jar of pennies and 2ps at home, and I never really go to the bank to change them, but in terms of 5ps for both charities and the elderly, I think it would still be useful.’

You can find the public consultation on gov.im.