Soaring numbers of bank branches are refusing to accept or offer coins.
In another sign that Britain is heading towards a cashless society, up to one in ten branches at major banks refuse to handle change.
It will come as a blow to small businesses that rely on bank branches for change, as do schools and charities running fundraising events and families hoping to exchange the contents of money boxes.
![The banking trade body UK Finance said cash payments had plummeted 16 per cent in 12 months, with one in ten adults now claiming to have ditched cash altogether. It estimates that within a decade just 9 per cent of all transactions will be in cash [File photo]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/04/05/01/11876962-0-What_is_most_disappointing_is_that_Saga_is_supposed_to_be_lookin-m-67_1554422697821.jpg)
The banking trade body UK Finance said cash payments had plummeted 16 per cent in 12 months, with one in ten adults now claiming to have ditched cash altogether. It estimates that within a decade just 9 per cent of all transactions will be in cash [File photo]
Experts accuse banks of attempting to push coins 'out the back door' just weeks after ministers U-turned on plans to scrap coppers.
They warn that rural communities that have lost significant numbers of branches in recent years could be worst affected.
Most of the big banks have so-called 'counterless' branches where customers use machines to deposit or withdraw cash.
Without traditional service counters, it means customers only have access to notes and cannot request or deposit coins.
![With ATMs and bank branches closing at a record pace, the Bank of England warned this week that the UK was just six years behind the world's cashless capital, Sweden, where cash payments are down 80 per cent since 2008 [File photo]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/19/00/9833106-0-image-a-2_1550534571175.jpg)
With ATMs and bank branches closing at a record pace, the Bank of England warned this week that the UK was just six years behind the world's cashless capital, Sweden, where cash payments are down 80 per cent since 2008 [File photo]
Britain's biggest bank, Lloyds Banking Group – which includes Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, has 55 coinless branches – around 3 per cent of its total of more than 1,700.
Santander does not offer coins in almost 10 per cent of its branches. Some 59 of its 614 sites are counterless.
Some 21 HSBC branches are also now coinless. Although the bank claims that 16 of these are within a five-mile radius of another HSBC branch that does accept coins.
![Britain's biggest bank, Lloyds Banking Group – which includes Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, has 55 coinless branches – around 3 per cent of its total of more than 1,700 [File photo]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/02/19/00/9976896-0-image-a-3_1550534920255.jpg)
Britain's biggest bank, Lloyds Banking Group – which includes Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, has 55 coinless branches – around 3 per cent of its total of more than 1,700 [File photo]
Barclays has ten self-service sites. Two in London created for customer enquiries and
