Coins deposited through coin deposit machines reach P37.5M —BSP

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Friday said nearly P40 million worth of coins have been deposited through its coin deposit machines (CoDMs) since the project’s launch in June.

In a post on its official Facebook page, the BSP said the amount of coins deposited through its CoDMs reached P375 million as of August 15, 2023.

In June, the BSP launched three CoDMs, with six more to be deployed further, in a bid to encourage the public to make use of their idle coins.

The machines accept all denominations of the BSP Coin Series and the New Generation Currency Coin Series launched in 2018, ranging from a centavo to as high as P20.

Coins deposited can be credited to a depositor’s e-wallets or shopping vouchers.

“The BSP is deploying coin deposit machines, or CoDMs, in partner retail establishments across the Greater Manila Area to encourage the public to deposit their idle coins in the CoDMs and to promote efficient coin recirculation in the country,” the central bank said.

“Through the CoDM project, the BSP aims to address the artificial coin shortage in certain areas of the country and help ensure that only fit and legal tender currency is readily available for public use,” it said.

In January 2021, then-BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno—now the current Finance Secretary—said the Philippines is expected to be a coinless society by 2025, as small transactions would then be done through quick response (QR) codes.

The BSP has also mandated the adoption of QR Ph, or the country’s QR code standard based on the Europay-Mastercard-VISA (EMV) standard, a global standard for secure payments. QR Ph is expected to be fully adopted by July 1, 2023. —VAL, GMA Integrated News