One dollar and five dollar coins will no longer be minted and circulated in Guyana and existing coins with those denominations are expected to be pulled out of circulation in the country soon.
This is according to Governor of the Bank of Guyana Dr Gobind Ganga who, at a joint press conference with Finance Minister Winston Jordan today, stated that while this plan is in motion no date has been fixed at this point in time for these coins to be pulled out of circulation in Guyana.
He explained that there is need for an assessment to be conducted first before the withdrawal of these coins from the local economy and presently the relevant authorities and experts are reviewing the feasibility of the elimination of the one dollar coin which has “obviously” lived its life already.
With this in mind, there is no need for the one dollar coin to be in circulation anymore and therefore the five dollar coins’ circulation is now being looked at as well.
Dr Ganga noted that withdrawal of the above-mentioned coins will have to be executed carefully.
If these two coins are no longer being circulated in Guyana then the 10 dollar coin which for a number of years has replaced the 10 dollar note would be the only coin in circulation throughout the country.
Meanwhile, the $20, $100, $500, $1,000, $5,000 dollar notes with the recent addition of the 50 dollar note are presently in circulation in Guyana.
However, the latter was introduced as a commemorative note to mark Guyana’s 50th Independence anniversary which will be celebrated on May 26 this year.
I did mention about inflation when this decision first came up. Dr Ganga knows this for a fact but is being pressured by the Government.
What will happen to items that attract vat there will be problems. The businesses would not want to lose a few dollars Ann the customers also will not want to lose the the G R A how will they treat this problem with businesses and then we have the.banks and other financial institutions would any one want to lose a few dollars on every trans
It is more economical to have the 10 dollar coin be replaced by a currency note instead.1 & 5 coins should be eliminated, since there are of not much value in this country. Coins are easily misplaced.
Keep the small change,give me big dollar wine,hope this is not a sign of inflation,the Jordan drying up the Treasurey.
Taking these coins out of circulation would be an automatic devaluation of the Guyana Dollar and create another inflation