Where do all the circulation coins go?

Really? I was in line to buy lunch today and all 10 people in front of me paid with a credit card or phone. I haven’t used coins to pay for anything other than a parking meter in a decade. I can’t believe that population increase is even coming close to making up for increasing cashless transactions. But the mint still makes billions of coins per year. Are they simply bagged and warehoused to collect “seniorage”? Or sent directly to the melting pot in some great metal-supplier Ponzi scheme?

 

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I would assume they are mostly used to make change for people paying paper cash, which is still very common... always have kids to consider as well who don't yet have cards.

 

I cleaned out a set of junk drawers a few days ago and ended up cashing in 178.00 in change and I hardly ever use cash anymore. This must have been accumulating for years now. So to answer your question, all of the circulation coinage somehow ends up in my junk drawers.

 

Ive got a big water cooler bottle about 1/3 of the way filled. Its gonna help fund our next vacation, then ill start all over again. I used to spy all the coins with a magni-spying glass looking for errors. A few years went by & I gave that up after getting skunked like a garage beer in florida.

 

You make an interesting observation.
People do still use a lot of cash, and businesses continue to have to make change. Also there is still a lot of business done through vending machines and most take change.

 

Well the cat knocked over the rolls in the cabinet and there wasn't any more room left in the glass block bank that I use for change so I had to roll that up and take it all to the bank.

299.50

Added two random quarters that were rolling around in the car and now I have fun money for TNA this weekend!

 

I am a rebel. I still prefer to use cash whenever possible. But I do hoard my change. I once had to replace a dresser that broke under the weight of my change.

 

OK, so maybe much of it ends up in Kirkuleez junk drawer. But I suspect many of the 8 Billion cents minted last year do not. Assuming a cent's useful life is 25 years, there are 217 billion cents in circulation. That's 668 for every man, woman and child in this country. Based on the above comments I guess it is plausible there are that many in piggy banks.

It is possible that the percentage of non-cash transactions in my area may not be representative of that in the rest of the country. But at least around here it seems like if coins were eliminated entirely maybe 1 in 10 people would be inconvenienced. For what it's worth, most of the vending machines and parking meters here take credit cards now.

 

I use cash often just to accumulate change and 1s and 5s dollar bills.

I just hoard the stuf for no reason but to drive CT members and my kids Crazy when they have to figure out why I have all that change. Can’t wait to look down and see a billion posts of what this penny is worth and if there are
Any errors or if they are all DDs.

 

Useful life of a zlincon way below 25 years... couple scratches and some moisture and it's dust.

 

This topic was just touched on in another thread people looki g for 2018 coins.
Yes true cash is still used ,however I bet if you really paid attention you find majority of transactions you witness daily are using another means to pay then cash.
I see it every day cash and checks payments are few are far between.
Most use a debit card,or charge card. From the moring coffee to the business lunch it is a plastic world.

 

Even if the total numbers of cash transactions decreased in a given year the 3 to 5% attrition rate will assure that large mintages are still necessary. 50 billion quarters are in circulation and it takes 750 million from each mint just to stay even.

 

That's impressive.

 

I use cash to pay for almost everything. Why? Because I don't like credit card debt and by using cash I get change that I can look through. If I use my card, I pay it off before the bill arrives. No interest means more spending money for me. One day I roll the coins and take them to the bank. More cash to spend.

 

I totally disagree, the amount of coinage being turned in at money counters such as "coinstar" machines has made it unnecessary to release newly minted coins until later in the calendar year.
It also is a barometer of how the economy is actually doing. As more middle and lower class citizens are forced to rely on loose change to live.
Working in the food industry in and out of retail stores daily I can assure you those coin counters get a real workout every day.
Has you ever seen one being serviced? The cash box inside is huge! They are also now located in banks and credit unions, as they are a time saver for the banks employees. They no longer need to count change just cash or deposit a voucher.
With the middle and lower class cashing in jars,pigvy banks,or what ever container used to hold loose change in record numbers....do ya think the feds need to dump more into the pool?
Also the fact that you can read right here on CT roll hunters finding it very difficult getting bricks from their local banks.
Why? Banks don't want to handel coins....it slows down their transactions. And is unproductive as far as profits.

 

Talking about debit cards credit cards and cash a phone company here locally if you come in and pay with cash on your phone bill they charge you $3 now.

They don't want you to use cash and you're penalized $3 for paying cash that's 36.00 a year for using cash what a bunch of well you no what I mean.
Dave

 

What???? Penalized for using legal tender???

 

Yes that's a fact not made up truth I'm looking to change phone company now.
Dave

 

The fallacy in this...... It has become fairly routine for my customers to want to pay their bills with credit cards. Each transaction I lose 3% to credit card fees. Yet, it is against the law for me to charge a handling fee for credit cards.