This was an interesting story I happened across while looking for videos on You Tube for my school’s final project. It seems that close to 2 billion Kenyan Shillings worth of coins are being kept by citizens in Kenya. Late in June of this year, the Central Bank of Kenya began a campaign to bring the coins back into circulation. They called it ‘coin week’ and it is hoped to halve the amount of coins being kept by the population.
Most of the interviewees for the story said that shops no longer accept the 50 cent coin, because of its low value. In fact, instead of giving out a 50 cent coin in change, some shops are substituting the coin for a piece of candy. Some banks do not accept coins in deposits and others charge fees for taking coins.
From the time of independence in 1963, Kenya has been using the Shilling as its currency, which is made up of 100 cents. Since about 1991, Kenyan sub-unit denominated coins have been made of plated steel. Since 1995, the 50 cent coin was the highest Shilling sub-unit coin in production. The highest denomination presently produced is the 40 Shilling coin, which makes the 50 cent coin 1/80 of the highest circulation coin- not quite as small as the US Lincoln cent, but still pretty small.
It takes about 91 Kenyan Shillings to equal $1 US. Therefore, the Kenyan 50 cent coin is worth about a half cent. However, according to many of the comments on the You Tube video, there are still plenty of things one can buy with 50 cents- probably just a piece of candy.
