Recommendation 23

Since 2017 coin stocks have continued to rise. At the end of March 2020, they significantly exceeded the target buffer stocks, which the Treasury set for the Mint to avoid shortages and be prepared for any uncertainties, in all denominations. Holdings of £2 coins were 26 times the target, and 1p and 2p were six and eight times above target respectively. At the end of March 2020, the Mint believed that the reduced level of UK coin manufacture that it experienced in 2019–20 would remain for the foreseeable future, and it had no plans to produce 2ps or £2 coins for at least ten years.53