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French mint calls for €5 coins
Notes need replacing too often and using coins instead would be cheaper, Monnaie de Paris says
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.