National Coin Shortage Update

This is an issue that's been going on recently.
I read this interesting article this morning.

Quote - "Is there a national coin shortage?
First -- as the Federal Reserve wants you to know -- the problem is not a lack of coins. The Fed said it's producing enough of them, minting 14.8 billion pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, 50-cent pieces and dollar coins in 2020, a 24% increase from the 11.9 billion coins produced in 2019.

Instead, the Fed says, the problem is that due to the pandemic the coins are collecting dust in homes and businesses when they should be continually circulating through the economy." closed quote

Quote - "How can we get more coins circulating?
The Federal Reserve is concerned enough about the coin supply problem that it's convened a U.S. Coin Task Force to look for ways to get coins moving.

To start, the task force encourages individuals to start spending their coins, pay with exact change, deposit spare coins at a financial institution and redeem coins at a coin kiosk or recycler." Closed quote

You can read the full story here -

https://www.cnet.com/personal-finan...the-scoop-on-your-quarters-dimes-and-nickels/

 

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During the pandemic, I've used very, very little cash. Before the pandemic, I also used very little cash.

The difference?

Pre-pandemic I pretty much only used cash when I stopped to fill the tank and bought drinks at the C-store. These purchases generated about 70c in change from $2. The change sits in my glass block bank until it overflows and I roll it to take it to the bank.

My single common purchase since March 2020 is a refill of my Iced Tea at Fuzzy's Taco Shop when I pick up takeout. This costs $1 and generates zero change. (The $100 I withdrew from the bank the 1st week in March 2020 lasted almost the whole pandemic).

The glass block is just as full today as it was in March 2020.

So, exercising my rights to jump to conclusions, generalize from a single event, and assume the customs of my small village are universally the customs of the universe, I call BS.

 

You know, I paid with exact change the last time they spouted that garbage and I'm not doing it again. IMO, they're full of toot...besides, they don't see it from a coin collector's point of view - LOL!

 

I wish I could find some of those "hoards" of coins!

 

Certainly there are people that prefer to just spend notes because its easier than counting out coins. And I suspect fewer people are rolling up their coins to cash in at the bank. That's kid stuff. Other than my local walmart not being able to keep their self-serve checkouts stocked with coins and only allowing card transactions at the self-serve (whereas Target and the supermarkets can handle it), I have not experienced anything that I could attribute to a coin shortage.

 

It sounds like the term "coin shortage" is very misleading and should get called something more like "lack of coin circulation." Lack of circulating coins would look a lot like a coin shortage on the surface, so perhaps the misunderstanding is understandable. I have to admit before and after Covid I also used pretty much no cash. I still have the $100 in $20 bills sitting in my wallet from months ago and I haven't spent a coin in circulation literally in years. Many things have contributed to this: the easy use of plastic just about everywhere, including vending machines, more online purchasing (which doesn't use cash at all) and my bank completely removing their coin changers and taking a more resistant attitude towards cash in general. To all of that add an inability to go out into the world very much for over a year and you have a situation inimical to the circulation of physical money.

 

Want to get more coins circulating? Stop using debit and credit cards. It's that simple.

 

I use cash far less than I did pre-pandemic. So I have gotten out of the habit of stuffing any coins on my dresser into my pockets when I go out, which I used to do routinely. Pre-pandemic, this meant that I always had coins in my pocket; that when I used cash, I spent them; and that I rarely had $1 in change on my dresser. Now, on those rare occasions when I do spend cash, I only spend bills, I get change back, and I've been running $3 - $4 in change on my dresser. Once in a while when I know I'm going to spend cash, or leave a cash tip, I try to remember to bring it along, but even then I forget half the time. If a lot of other people are operating the same way, then coins are indeed not circulating at the usual pace. But I will say that I have not had a merchant tell me they don't have change.

 

The roots of this clearly go back quite a while.

Compare the number of times in a day where a nickel or a dime was used say back before World War II. Even during my childhood and early adult years, coins were something you took out of your pocket at night. And loaded into your pocket the next morning.

Multiple uses between trips to the bank.

Today it's one and done. Change goes into a jar and then rolled for the bank or Coinstar.

Population is larger too.

 

The explanation given sounds reasonable. I'm not sure what you mean by "a collectors point of view"?

 

I get it that not as many people are dumping large amounts of coins at banks anymore but what I don't understand is what the pandemic has to do with people SPENDING coins. They didn't do that before the "VID" and still don't. The way I see it is the sole reason for the circulation problem is people not dumping into coinstar/banks as much.

 

I can’t relate to the term “coin shortage”. In my area there isn’t one. No signs in businesses. No begging for coins, no rounding up to the nearest dollar, no nothing. Banks are not having a problem and they are not limiting buying rolls.

It sounds like hype to me to scare people into doing what the government wants.

 

That's the injection problem, the coins aren't being circulated back to the back to the bank or through tbe Coinstar and thus are not coming back out of the bank and from the contracted coin terminals.

 

Meaning collectors of circulated coins don't want to part with their change until they've had a chance to go through it. I only go through the change in my wallet about every two weeks.

 

Don't listen to paddyman, he is the reason we have a shortage, he just wont admit it.

 

Almost every store that I go to and pay cash, ask me if I want to "round Up", "Round up" for what or who. Who gets the amount that was "rounded up?" If everybody that pays cash "rounds up", how much is it and who gets it? I'm not trying to brag, but I pay my tithing each month to my church and I let my church evaluate the needs of the members and if someone is short of funds, they use the tithes to help them.
When I go into a store, many of the cashiers are young kids (under 20). If the employee gets $10 from "round up", who does the employee give the overage to...the company? Nahhh! It's easier to put it in their pocket.
Now, don't misunderstand me. There are a great many employees that are honest and I applaud their integrity, but don't ask me to "round up."

 

No comment

(I'm actually going to dump thousands of metal detected coins into a Coinstar very soon!)

 

Part of the problem is, of course, the conflicting policies of our government during the last 16 months of the pandemic. The general guidance was to avoid the use of cash in any form so as to avoid the issue of contact spreading. The second problem was that as businesses started to reopen and could not hire sufficient labor, the businesses started to automate and of course, to do that, they had to install non-cash electronic kiosks for ordering and paying.

An example of the latter was my regular visit to Taco Bell on my way to my local coin club meeting. They have an ordering/paying kiosk but I bypass that and stand at the counter to order in person and pay in cash. The staff tries to not serve me but I won't have it so they sigh, roll their eyes at the ancien regime, and put up with me. Ditto for sit down restaurants with the device on the table.

These aren't the only reasons for the cash circulation deficit but they are a part of it.

 

as I mentioned a few weeks ago I had a few Walmart popcorn tins from Christmas's past filled to capacity with cents and a huge bag of nickels that I was saving for the grand kids as a gift. yanno here kids a "gift". They didn't want them so I took them put them in a bank coin star. (free if you deposit it) over $420.00 worth. I did MY part. lol