Mint requests return of coins to circulation

They are saying there is another shortage of coins in circulation.

https://www.numismaticnews.net/world-coins/mint-asks-public-to-return-coins-to-circulation

https://www.numismaticnews.net/world-coins/mint-advises-public-get-coins-moving

 

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Damn collectors.....

 

Quite a few other countries are reporting the same.

 

those two articles are from July and August 2020.


Mint Asks Public to Return Coins to Circulation

• NUMISMATIC NEWS STAFF
• JUL 24, 2020

Mint Advises Public: 'Get Coins Moving'

• NUMISMATIC NEWS STAFF
• AUG 8, 2020

 

Gee, you don't think people are afraid of losing everything in the economic reset, do you? 401Ks have been taking a severe pounding. People are going to start hoarding money...

 

Well, they make five different quarters a year again. What do they expect hoarding Cats to do???

 

I don't collect modern coins so I guess I can dump my change bank in the coin machine.

 

If they are looking for those Zincolns, ashes to ashes, dust to dust..............

 

As I mentioned in another thread, I've got a few coffee cans full of rolled pennies (cents for you purists) along with a few rolls of dimes and nickels.

My problem is getting them out of my closet. You know how much a coffee can of pennies (cents, whatever) weighs?

 

If you're hoarding fiat, you're doing it wrong. If you're hoarding fiat change, you're doing it doubly wrong.

Clad coinage has a "melt value" of 20% or less of current face value. Nickels and copper cents hold metal worth more than the coin's face value, but (a) you can't make money by smelting them, and (b) that value is still quite low relative to their volume and weight.

If you want to hoard cash (and there are some good arguments for doing just that, even in an inflationary economy), be sensible, and hoard it in the form of $100s. Or, at worst, $20s.

 

Am curious - what are the arguments for hoarding fiat cash in an inflationary economy?

 

+1. Jeff?

 

Because Ben Franklin said to.

 

The problem is usually caused by inflation. People simply allow their change jars to fill up more as the coins lose value.

Of course closing the banks started the problem this time.

 

The trouble is people are not using cash any more. I rarely use it. Yesterday I mailed a package at the post office. The week before that I bought a Coke at a gas station. That's been it for a few weeks.

Everything is on credit or debit cards. Of course, if people have all of that change at home, who don't they turn them in at the bank or supper market coin machines? It's money that's just sitting there doing nothing.

 

Good call-out, guys.

To clarify a little bit, by "hoard" I do NOT mean "keep most of your net wealth in cash", and by "inflationary" I do NOT mean "hyperinflationary". We haven't yet seen hyperinflation in the US, and I personally don't expect to see it without some major changes in world economics and politics. While the US is heading in several wrong directions, it's not a headlong plunge, again IMHO.

Given that, wealth that you hold as cash has lost close to 10% of its purchasing power over the last year, and as long as inflation continues, it'll keep losing value. So, why keep it?

For one thing, anywhere else you choose to put it might turn out to be in a bubble. Put it into Apple or houses, and it might double in the next couple of years, or it might lose more than half its current value. Cash declines predictably, and not abruptly. I see lots of talk about "The Great Reset", but I do NOT see a way for Them to just knock a zero or two off the dollar's value by legislation.

Cash is also available, unlike a CD that has a fixed maturity date, or real estate that needs to be sold.

Now, having said that, I've got most of my own wealth (such as it is) in equities and retirement funds and the house, and that's proven to be the right decision. My small hoard of PMs has done OK, and I still feel guilty about the cash that I don't have invested and earning returns -- but at the same time, I don't have to worry about freeing up funds if I need to replace an appliance or a car or a job or a doctor's yacht payment. (If I have to do all those at once, we're back to being uncomfortable.)

 

This is not investment advice. Take a look at I Savings Bonds. They are designed to move with inflation rates. Currently paying 9+%. Both links are to to treasury direct, the official US Treasury web site.
Best,
Richard
Series I Savings Bonds - TreasuryDirecthttps://www.treasurydirect.gov › ibonds › res_ibonds
Series I Savings Bonds Rates & Terms: Calculating Interest ...https://www.treasurydirect.gov › res_ibonds_iratesandterms

 

I save my coins up for a few months then roll them and take with me when I go to the bank. Then ai trade for paper money.

 

...the usual suspects...