The Royal Mint has abandoned millions of 1p and 2p coins in warehouse across the UK.
Around £4million worth of unwanted copper coins have been stored indefinitely.
New industry data shows that around 260m surplus of coins have been stored including two thirds of all the 225m 2p coins in the UK as well as 110m of the 200m 1p coins that have been minted.
The surplus of 1p and 2p coins in storage now exceeds the amount in circulation.
Surveys suggest that more than half of these two pennies that enter circulation are used just once before ending up in storage, while one in 12 are thrown away.
The Royal Mint, the official maker of British coins, has not recycled or melted down surplus coins since it closed its smelting facility more than a decade ago and only accepts damaged coins collected by banks.
The Treasury has not instructed the Royal Mint to make any new coins this year amid a decline in the use of cash.
There are an estimated 27bn coins in circulation and the Treasury said it had "no plans" to change the mix of UK coins in the system.
Royal Mint data show that 30m 1p coins were minted in 2022 and none in 2023, while no 2p pennies have been minted since 2021.
More than a billion pennies were minted in 2000.
A spokesman for UK Finance said: “The industry is committed to the sustained use of cash. However, we really need to make sure that we have the right type of notes and coins that people want to use. And we should be thinking about how we might recycle some of the current coins in circulation.”
A spokesman for The Royal Mint said: “The Royal Mint only accepts damaged circulating coins. These are processed to ensure the value of the metal can be recovered.”
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