Why do you think the EU countries with euros went with a 2 cent coin? It just doesn't seem useful and makes a lot of change in your pocket. For small change, 5 cents and 1 cents are enough or am I missing something?

Maybe it's just because the US doesn't have one and I'm not used to it. However, it seems like the US tried a 2 cent coin at one point and then gave it up. Am I right about that?

maybe it's because 2x2 cents is less room in your pocket than 4x1 cent?

another noteable difference vis-a-vis the US is there is no "quarter" but instead a 20 cent piece.

I'm German and feel like you'd have more change in your pocket without the 2 cent (2 x 1 cent for every...).

Maybe it's just because Germany used to have 2 Pfennig coins ( with the Deutsche Mark) before and I'm used to it. ;-)

Giselle,
Prices in Europe are generally higher, Europeans are less anal with change....its very typical to round up or down, no one seems to care. Actually 2 cent Euro is too small and probably is rarely passed.

Not to demean anyone, but in the overall scheme of things, I just can't get too aroused either way about this issue!

You just had to get your two cents in. Now, didn't you?

Generally speaking, there's a very wide array of euro coins and bills because, depending on the country, people were accustomed to coins and bills of various values and they wanted to keep everybody satisfied.

Thee was a 10 centimes coin in France, for instance, and its value was roughly equal to 2 euro cents. Similarily nobody in France would consider using a 500 € bill, but the Germans had some very high denominations for bills, so we got a 500 € bill (I've never seen such a bill, not even a 200 € bill).

By the way, some countries decided to stop minting the 1 and 2 cents coins, that they find useless.

MMMM 2 cent euro!!!! Is that how much the dollar is worth these days!

I like the 2 euro cent coin, find it very useful. Just for the obvious reasons, it is less space and less heavy than carrying around two one euro cent coins. I think it makes less change, not more, obviously.

In September at the SNCF office at CDG terminal 2 I saw a young man pay for his ticket with a 500euro note.

There was a bit of commotion around it. The note was taken away and (I assume) examined.

Nothing like advertising you're carry a LOT of cash, eh?

It really is too bad that in the US we couldn't get rid of the dollar bill, much less the penny, but we all know the story of the dollar coins here.

I personally find the 1 Euro coin to be a lot more convenient than fishing into the moneyclip for "ones" as I have to do here but I guess that's part of the adventure of travel IN THE U.S.!!!!!

I felt the opposite about 1 euro coins, hate having all that weight jangling around in my pants pocket.

Add me to the list that thinks the 2 euro cent coin is silly. I have noticed how many things are rounded up and I seem to accumulate very few 1 or 2 euro cent coins while in Europe, unlike in the States where I seem to accumulate pennies by the hundreds! I think the main difference is that in Europe they include the tax so they make the final price an even number or rounded off to 5, but in the States, they add the tax making more things come out to a total in odd numbers of cents.

Hi giselle,

If you get a sheet of logarithmic graph paper you will see that the distance from 1 to two, from two to five and from five to ten are almost the same.

1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 allows for the most combinations with the least number of coins or bills.

The US used to have a 2 ct coin as well as a $2 bill.

Patrick, we have three coffee mugs overflowing with 1 and 2 euro cent coins...we'd be very happy to have you take them off our hands!