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The 1p coin could soon be consigned to history.

The future of the penny is in doubt after the Governor of the Bank of England suggested it could be scrapped.

With the days of the penny chew well behind us, Mark Carney said the coin was effectively worthless and said it “made sense” to get rid.

And he has previous – the Canadian oversaw the withdrawal of the 1p coin when he was Governor of the Bank of Canada.

The idea of getting rid of the coin was revealed when Mr Carney quizzed by a group of schoolchildren on the BBC.

It comes soon after the new £5 note was revealed.

He said while it was a question for the Royal Mint, it was worth considering.

He said: “I will say that in a number of other countries, because the penny isn’t used very frequently - and to be honest I rarely see them myself – they have done away with the penny, so in Canada, New Zealand and Australia, they’ve done away with the penny, or the equivalent.”

Mr Carney told BBC News School Reporters that when the coin had been withdrawn in other countries they had given people the chance to donate them to charity.

Asked if he thought getting rid of the penny coin was a good idea, he replied: “At some point.”

He went on: “I made the point that we keep inflation low, stable, predictable. But actually what that means, what parliament tells us to do, is to make sure it averages two per cent a year.

“The cost of a chocolate bar should go up two per cent a year and ideally wages should go up more than that so people are getting ahead.

“But the point was that over time that means the real value of the penny, and what the penny can buy, goes down, and so at some point it does make sense to get rid of it.”

There are 11.3 billion pennies in circulation, making it by far the most common coin.

The modern penny was introduced in 1971 when we shifted to decimalisation. The half penny was withdrawn from circulation in 1984.

While being quizzed, Mr Carney also revealed he was a fan of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate.