French mint calls for €5 coins

FRENCH money authorities are campaigning for the European Central Bank to replace €5 notes with coins instead.

The Monnaie de Paris believes coins would save on production costs - €5 notes need replacing after about a year, while a coin would have a lifespan of at least 40.

The head of the French mint, Christophe Beaux, said: "If we used €5 coins instead of notes, the eurozone would save €10billion."

The European Commission is preparing a study on how to reduce the cost of producing money - but the ECB is said to be opposed to France's idea.

If it ever was approved, the move would keep the French mint busy - it is producing 800 million coins of different denominations over the next three years, but output is expected to decline thereafter.

French euro coins are made at a factory in Pessac in the Gironde and it has had to rely increasingly on souvenir coins and medals to stay profitable recently.