We all know the expression "take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves". Given the inflation we are experiencing at the moment the expression is perhaps not as true as it once was. However, I was thinking the other day (actually when I was being handed a pocket full of coppers in a shop that had run out of five and ten pence pieces) what would happen if everyone raided their small change drawer at home, collected it all up and deposited it at their bank.
If every person in the UK were to deposit just £1 that would equate to roughly £60 million. I am no economist, but surely it is better to have that money sloshing round in the financial system rather than gathering dust at home. I doubt that you would ever hear a Chancellor of the Exchequer stand at the dispatch box and encourage the nation to dig out all its small change - you can picture the derision from the opposition benches and imagine the "penny pinching chancellor" headlines - but it would surely make a difference.
Recently I have also come across the charity Pennies (www.pennies.org.uk), which allows shoppers to donate a few pennies to charity when they make payments with debit or credit cards. Given the number of card transactions that go through every day, the pounds certainly would take care of themselves if everyone were to support this initiative.
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