Is this possible, the mint is not producing enough U.S. Coins to feed the public ? I have been to two establishments this week and both have signs up saying they do not give change. "Have your exact amount ready to pay". What gives with the shortage of coins ? Is the Mint experiencing a slow down due to the Covid virus. Dave
This thread has a discussion on this topic: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/shortage-of-coins-due-to-corona-virus.363441/#post-4636342
Nobody's spending them. That's the entire problem. They're going out as change, and not coming back to stores or banks.
Banks are closed to the public. Mint and Federal Reserve personnel have been furloughed. The coins exist, the problem is getting them from point A to point B.
It's not really a production issue. There's tons and tons of coins from each year technically in circulation. The problem was the interruption to the circulation and in some areas it's continuing again (all my local banks closed the lobbies again for instance). Armored carries do distribution and it's not a solo job. At least 2 per truck, social distancing not possible, but their routes got smaller also from businesses being closed or not able to make the deposits so circulation isn't taking coin out and rerouting and redistributing it back again and causing the shortage.As far as these businesses. I think mostly they don't want to deal with coins and banks and would rather exact change or credit and debit cards. Up to you if you want to do business with a business that would rather put up a sign that says basically "no change given" instead of a sign that says "dear customers, we need coins please" or "free soda if you pay with change for your order" or "5% discount if paying with coin" something like that. Plenty of ways they "could" do it to get what they need from the customrs and give out change still, but they decide to go with "exact change or credit cards only". Personally I wouldn't shop there because I read the signs as "no change given, screw you if you don't like it, it's what I'm doing" and as a customer I have the ability to decide to spend my money elsewhere. Anyways. I think some businesses are using it as a way to condition the customers off of cash payments.
I mean a good portion of people when they get change now just throw it in a jar at home and since corona hit and less people are using cash the problem has grown. People need to go dump there jars at there local bank or coinstar and the problem will solve its self.
True, production at the mints has actually increased. Difficult to do when many of the coinstar locations were in businesses that shut down, and most banks closed their lobbies. Very difficult to deposit large quantities of coin through a drive through lane. A slide out drawer is limited on how much weight and size it can handle. (Most people would have to do multiple back and forth loading of the drawer), and you can't use the pneumatic tube type lanes at all. Carriers would get stuck in the tubes.
I still wouldn't use a coinstar and lose 11%. I have used one for a bunch of nickles I had, but I chose the gift card option so no fee deducted, but for the other $1500 I have sitting around I;ll have to wait for the bank lobbies to open. Now all are closed again here in Florida.
https://www.stltoday.com/news/got-s...cle_c624c238-09e3-5587-a3fc-cb12a63a0635.html https://gvwire.com/2020/07/15/as-coin-shortage-persists-some-banks-pay-a-bounty-for-small-change/
