EU coins

Is it me or there are not as many euro coins 2023 and 2024 out in circulation? Seen very few.

I think it's a general trend. Haven't had the fortune to visit the EU recently, but here in the UK, we've not minted as many coins recently. I suspect our good friends & neighbours are experiencing the same thing.

Transactions are increasingly done digitally (I.e. the rise of online shopping), and in person transactions are increasingly done via credit/debit cards. Only something like 15-20% of in person transactions are cash, down from the 50-60% mark about a decade ago.

Covid really drove a lot of people to avoid cash (as to limit possible means of transmission), which exacerbated things. Interestingly enough, the recent cost-of-living crisis seems to be driving cash transactions up; it's believed it's easier to budget with physical cash.

Furthermore, with inflation, coins are worth less & less every year so very gradually, people will move more into banknotes than coins as banknotes (typically) have a higher value.

Then there's demand from banks. If banks have enough from precious year issues, they won't ask for new ones to be made.

And because coins are circulating less frequently, they're lasting longer (i.e. not wearing out as quickly).

So, the coins already made are surviving longer & being used less often. Demand for coins is just down across the board.

A few other reasons 

In the U.K. at least also pretty much all commemorative 50ps since 2019 have been NIFCs sold at a premium online I’ve also seen this in Australia and some countries in the Eurozone.

It seems like cash is slowly fading away in the most well developed counties with the exception of Japan and European countries in the east. Although cash is strong in the Americas (excluding US and Canada), Middle East and Asia. 

For example earlier in the year my cousin visited several Latin American countries and pretty much all the time it was cash payments outside of capital cities. When I was in the UAE in 2018, 2019, 2022 and in July it was cash for the taxis and markets whilst for my dad his trip to Singapore, Australia and UAE (2022-23) cash only seems to survive in the foot courts in Singapore and farm-shops in the remotest parts of WA.