U.S. coin shortage?

[warmsecondrinse]

Some of the coin machines allow (or used to) you to avoid the fee by choosing a receipt that's only good at the store the machine is in as well choosing as a gift card.

I've seen an occasional mention of the coin 'shortage'. They all said the same thing. The 'shortage' is from people not making unnecessary trips, so instead of dumping their change into machines when their coin jar is full, they start a second one. The same number of coins are out in circulation, just a slowly increasing % of those coins are sitting in people's homes. The Fed is supposedly increasing production, but there really isn't much extra capacity. I just assumed that's because there's never been a need because (as stated above) coins last for decades.

Paper currency: The paper/cloth blend most currencies are made from don't play well with most microorganisms. If they did, there'd've been multiple global pandemics going on for the last couple hundred years. I haven't read anything suggesting the Covid-19 lives ionger on bills than other bacteria and viruses do.

Yeah, I used to be a bank teller so my bills are faced the same way and in order in my wallet. Funny, though. I don't care which way the order is or if they're upside down or not.

 

[qsd-dan]

I did some digging and it appears the last coin shortage was in the 1960's after a switch to clad coinage from silver. People were hoarding older coins which caused a temporary shortage until clad coins flooded the market.

"Stink Eye" mode remains in effect.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Jim...

As I said above, "However, if you turn your coins into an e-gift card or donate the coins to charity, there's no fee."

Looking at the list, if Lowe's is still on there, I'm for that all the way! Yes, it's less than an hour to wrap, but if I can use it fee-free somewhere I already spend money...

Chuck

 

[combo52]

Coin Shortage ?

My Credit Union lets us just dump coins in their machine for free. 

 

About once a year I take all my spare change including lots that were found in FL washers traps, some of it is really dark and discolored, Last time the Lady working at the CU said I should keep my coins in a dry location when she saw how discolored some were, LOL

 

I have long thought that the US Government should encourage people to return change , maybe by requiring banks etc to have free sorting machines.

 

It is both wasteful and unpatriotic to hard coins, you are costing the USG money [ your money too ] because they have to make many times the number of coins actually needed.

 

It is also environmentally unsound to hoard coins, doing so wastes energy making something that the world does not need, the amount of mining world wide to get the metal and the Hugh amount of energy consumed making and disturbing new coins much of which could be eliminated, use of Coin and even paper money is going way down, it really might not even necessary to ever make any more metal coins.

 

John L.

 

[supersuds]

"I did some digging and it appears the last coin shortage was in the 1960's after a switch to clad coinage from silver. People were hoarding older coins which caused a temporary shortage until clad coins flooded the market."

No, there was a shortage of pennies in the 1970s, when the price of copper went up, too. This was solved by making pennies mostly of zinc.

 

[qsd-dan]

And so it begins...

 

[rp2813]

The Hotel St. Francis in San Francisco apparently still offers a money washing service (not to be confused with shady "laundering" practices),  which began in 1938 when coins were still made of silver.  Oh, the scandal of spending "dirty money" and soiling one's gloves!

 

 

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[petek]

Not that there's a coin shortage here I know of.. but the Imperial Theatre, formerly the Capitol where I got my first job at 16 y.o., and is now a live theatre owned and operated by the Sarnia Little THeatre group is struggling having to be closed. Today the ran a fundraiser called A Bit of Change or something asking people to donate their coins, which you can't redeem at a bank right now anyways, so I took a pailful I've beeing adding to for perhaps a decade, all quarters, dimes and nickels. I'm guessing there would be at least $200 if not more in it. But I hate to see them go under and the theatre shut down.

 

[retro-man]

I was at the bank this week making my weekly business deposits and had added a couple of dollars worth of change in my deposit. I said to the teller that I had heard about the coin shortage and figured I would help out. She stated that there is no coin shortage that they have heard about. They place their request with the federal banks and it arrives as usual. No one has informed the banks about this. So where did this "fake news" come from???

Jon

 

[DADoES]

Fake Coin Shortage

 
The shortage may affect some areas and not others.  As mentioned above, my bank has signs at the drive-through advising of coin shortages ... apparently they're aware of it and affected, otherwise they wouldn't have put up the signs.

 

[vacerator]

Somebody closed the mints!

Yet want's everything else opened! Di Di Duh! "Twighlight Zone" music.

 

[revvinkevin]

When I went to the grocery store the other day, I went to pay with cash. The cashier mentioned the going shortage, saying they are not giving out (coin) change and asked me if I wanted to donate to change (rounded up to the next dollar) back to the store, or donate to the current charity box there at the checkstand. I paid with a card.

 

[davey7]

We ran into this just over the Wisconsin border last weekend at Woodmans (pay for groceries with card anyways) but it was notable.

 

[perc-o-prince]

Kevin-

I'd question the legality of them accepting cash as a payment but not giving change! And, they'll take the change and put it in the charity box, but not give it to you?

Chuck

 

[neptunebob]

I just did my part today...

Sam left us with 2 gallon jars of rolled up coins after he passed away.  I brought it all to the bank (they are heavy!) and turned out to be $212 and some cents (a lot of pennies).  

 

There is also loose change, I guess I can use Coin Star for that.

 

[jetcone]

We're seeing here a 4% hike if you use credit or debit c

That to me is BS! They say the banks have upped the transaction fees and so pass it along to the consumer. In a pandemic with people out of work? Thats not gonna last I predict .

 

[perc-o-prince]

Hey Jon,

My info is admittedly outdated, but last I knew you can not be charged a surcharge for using plastic per the merchant's contract with Visa/MC (don't know about Discover/Amex). They can offer a cash discount, like Sunoco and some other gas stations do, but can't charge a penalty for plastic.

Anyone with a more up-to-date merchant's agreement know about this and if it still exists?

Chuck

 

[sudsmaster]

About 30 years ago I bought a little home coin sorting machine. Later upgraded it. It works OK, not great, but for the past 15 years haven't felt a need to use it, since nearly all my transactions are with plastic, or on-line.

 

Does anybody collect rare coins any more?

 

 

[kskenmore]

I am a Banker...

I work at a small community bank and we have experienced this coin shortage. We would order boxes of rolled coin and get 1/5 of what we ordered. I think there are several things causing this.

The flow of coin works like this...

1. Mint manufactures coins
2. Coin is distributed to Federal Reserve Banks
3. Boxes of rolled coin is distributed to large banks.
4. Large banks distribute boxes of rolled coin to smaller banks and retailers.
3. Coins flow between retailers, banks, consumers.
4. Banks and retailers sell coin back to up to National Banks and Federal Reserve Banks who sort and roll the coin again.

What I think caused this issue is a sudden decrease in consumers spending coin and also the fact that bank lobbies were closed for several months. Most people exchange large amounts of coin for cash/deposit in bank lobbies. Without this option, coins quit being turned in. Just our small bank had been selling back thousands of dollars each week in coin and suddenly went weeks without selling anything.

We were still having demand for rolled coin by the retailers that bank with us, but we were receiving none back. If this was happening at banks all over the country, (I am quite sure it was) this created an imbalance in the circulation of coin.