Coin shortage hits retailers, laundromats, tooth fairy

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By SARAH SKIDMORE SELL

The national coin shortage has been an unusual side effect of the pandemic. Among its victims? Retailers, laundromats and even the tooth fairy.

The Federal Reserve announced in June that the supply system for coins had been severely disrupted by the pandemic. While there are still enough coins out there, they aren’t circulating as freely because many businesses have been closed and consumers aren’t out spending as usual.

The U.S. Mint and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have urged Americans to use coins or turn them in to banks to help for now. As the economy recovers and businesses reopen, the coin supply is expected to normalize.

In the meantime, people have have been forced to find workarounds.



FILE - This Wednesday, July 15, 2020 file photo shows rolls of coins in a container at a market in Nanticoke, Pa. The Federal Reserve says the supply system for coins had been severely disrupted by the pandemic. While there were still enough coins out in the world, they aren’t circulating as freely because businesses have been closed and consumers weren’t spending as usual. (Sean McKeag/The Citizens' Voice via AP)


Read more: https://apnews.com/a06b0341ff8c9a53582d953ac8c02971

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I covet and collect quarters as I get change when I shop for the laundromat.

I can't depend on the change machines in the laundromat these days.

[roamer65]

26. The only useful coins left are quarters and dollar coins.

The penny is utterly useless. The nickel and dime sometimes help make exact amounts.

I tell cashiers very routinely to forget the pennies. Some even round it now automatically.

[PJMcK]

2. I must be really old fashioned

Since I was a kid in the early 1960s, I've always valued coins. My weekly allowance in 1965 was 10¢ a week and I had to clean my room, polish my shoes(!), keep my bicycle clean and put away and probably a couple of other things. Every now and then, my mother would give me the coins she got as change.

I kept it all until I had enough to roll the coins up. I loved taking the rolled coins to the bank to put in my savings account. In those days, I think we got about 5% interest on deposits. Those were the days, huh?

I still roll my coins and my local bank accepts them if they're rolled. It still amazes me to discover a several times a year that there is a couple of hundred dollars worth of change in our coin jar.

Why would anyone not consider that as money?

[CaptYossarian]

6. Just a few years after that, around 1967, in Chicago--

I would hear the Good Humor truck coming and my mom would give me a dime for a cone. But first she'd examine it to see if it was the new one that didn't have the gold inside. They changed all the coins in 1964.

I still find pre-1964 coins and wheat pennies. Soon, all coins and stamps will be collectibles. (And not just the 6 cent Eisenhower ones I remember.)

It took us a long time to get this old. Just my luck, there are no clouds to yell at right now.

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Silver, not gold. They were an alloy of 90% silver and 10% copper.

I once found a 1964 quarter by hearing the distinctive sound it made as it slid out of the coin chute attached to the cash register.

Some lowlife broke into my apartment years ago and stole all the wheat pennies and silver coins I had found in my early years. They're much harder to find now.

[CaptYossarian]

12. Thanks for the correction.

I knew it was a precious metal.

[forkol]

19. My father and I went metal detecting yesterday.

He found a silver quarter.

I found a 1944 Mercury head dime, in fairly good condition.

We consider it a good day if we find any silver coins.

My dad has found maybe hundreds of these silver coins. They are a treat to find, because in the black soil of Illinois, they actually gleam and are quite shiny even for being encased in the dirt, which makes it easy to try to look for them after you dig them up.

I occasionally find them in my change, and when I do, I save them. Don't really know why, I just kinda like how they look.

[Polybius]

45. I just got a 1907 Indian head penny in change

No idea if it's worth anything, but I saved it.

[roamer65]

48. Worth $1 if it's well worn but not damaged.

[roamer65]

27. 1965 was the first year of cupronickel clad dimes and quarters.

The half dollar in 1965 dropped from 90 pct silver down to 40 percent silver until 1969. 1970 halves are 40 percent, but were only issued in mint sets. 1971 was the first year for cupronickel clad halves.

So...also keep your eye out for 1965-1970 half dollars. Sometimes a 1970 half escapes a mint set and gets spent.

Circulation Eisenhower dollars from 1971-1978 are cupronickel clad as well, contrary to opinion of many.

[CaptYossarian]

38. Thank you. That's very helpful and informative.

[roamer65]

44. No problem.

The real rarity to keep your eye out for is a 1965 silver dime or quarter. Only a handful exist, as they were errors. The silver planchets were fed through the wrong presses.


$$$$$ if you ever find one.

[CaptYossarian]

46. I'll have to check.

Back when I was working, a co-worker couldn't get a vending machine to accept his dime. I figured it out from across the room by the little plink sound it made and exchanged one of mine for his. He thought I did him a real favor.

That favor may have gone my direction. All he got was a soda out of it.

[roamer65]

47. Yup. He did you a big favor.

Used to be vending machines could handle both 90 pct and the cupronickel. Not so much anymore.

One thing to do now is always check the Coinstar rejection slots at stores.

[IrishEyes]

15. My parents have an old payphone that I would put coins in.

There is a key to open it. I remember how rich I felt when my mom opened it and I saw how much was in there. I still have a big collection of old coins and foreign coins that I have saved. Some of the coins are valuable. I always check my coins when I get them. I also have things like old subway tokens from different cities.

I recently rolled up all the coins I had that were after 1980 and put them in my savings account. The teller was thrilled to get them.

[CaptYossarian]

3. This is great news for the kids!

And they'll have to convert the appliances just like they did the vending machines.

Maybe the states can eliminate sales tax and replace it with revenue from legalized pot.

There, problems solved.

[rzemanfl]

4. That Cole person better change their phone number. n/t

[kimbutgar]

5. I have a coin purse in my handbag and have actually helped a store giving them $2.00 in quarters

I have so much change in my house it’s one less thing I worry about. I think this coin shortage is the feds way to get us to a cashless system. I don’t trust this coin shortage narrative. It is a scheme cooked up with munchkin and the banks. Banks save a lot of money if they don’t have to handle the exchange of money. I worked in a bank years ago and they prefer electronic transactions.

[yaesu]

8. Sorry Mnuchin, my quarter will cost you $10, isn't capitalism beautiful

[Marthe48]

9. I let my grand kids roll my coins at Christmas

They each got $40.00 and I had some left. Of course, they are really hoping my jar will fill up again, but since I'm not shopping much, I'm not getting change. And if I do shop, I give the clerk change if I have it in my purse.

One of the clerks asked me if I wanted the penny back after I gave her .85 cents. I let her keep it.

[Devil Child]

10. This is causing a weekly struggle in our household

We are dependent on a basement coin-op washer/dryer for our apartment. Every week involves a couple trips to the bank to scrounge quarters in order to have a family with clean clothes the next week. We have been forced to air dry much more than usual. Yet another stupid reality of living in 2020.

[skypilot]

40. Can you talk to your landlord about it?

A while back I deposited my change at my bank. When the change shortage hit I called my bank to see if I could but some rolls of quarters from them and they said no. They were short on change also. I needed quarters for laundry so I called my landlord and asked if I could buy some from the washers or dryers in our complexes laundry room. He said yes. He just opened up the coin receptacle and sold me 20 dollars worth of quarters.

[Devil Child]

41. That's a damn good idea skypilot, thanks for the suggestion

It’s one of those never-there landlords but I’ll reach out.

[skypilot]

42. Hope it works out.

My landlord is always around our complex, so he is easy to contact. And he is a decent fellow.

[NCjack]

11. Mnuchin, you dumb MFer, it is your job to manage the Mint. Make more coins.

[EarthFirst]

13. Sounds like the tooth fairy needs to adjust for inflation... nt

[NurseJackie]

14. Some laundromats have debit/credit swipe readers that give tokens.

Coins are probably on the way to becoming obsolete. I've seen laundromats that have NO coins, NO tokens... but instead there's a main central digital console for people to pay AND activate the specific machine they've chosen to use.

I'd compare it to going to a gas station attendant and paying in advance for $10 on pump #5. Same principle... you load up your washing machine, then go to the automated attendant and pay to use washing machine #5.

[justgamma]

16. I guess I don't get it.

If businesses have been closed and consumers weren’t spending as usual, then the demand for coins should be less. So if people aren't shopping, where are the coins going?

[TheFarseer]

17. When it's serious

Assholes like Wells Fargo and many others will stop charging 10% to take my coins.

[RobertDevereaux]

18. Well, the Tooth Fairy from my novel, Santa Steps Out: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups...

...reports back that HER supply of coins is holding up just fine!

[machoneman]

20. How about old TV's that required a coin to run them? Saw pics long ago. Anyone with....

more info?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemeter_(pay_television)

[frazzled]

21. We just rolled ...

$93 dollars in coins that we had stashed (my husband always empties his pockets into a bowl on his dresser, though since the pandemic!), but we haven't gotten to the bank to deliver them yet.

We can take them to a bank that sorts them in machines, but the bank that is just two blocks from our place gave us some old-fashioned roll tubes, and we had fun doing it while watching tv one evening.

It reminded me also that some years ago we had filled a book of the 50 state quarters that I had completely forgotten about. I think we'll give it to our 6-year-old granddaughter soon, since kids that age often like such collections.

[Wicked Blue]

22. If everyone would just look under their sofa cushions

and the floors of their cars, the problem would be solved

[Luciferous]

23. We took all of our change in to the bank

[brooklynite]

24. Meet the "Mini Assegni..."

In the 1970s, Italy had a huge coin shortage (50 and 100 Lira; about 60c and $1.20). To address the need, local banks started printing "mini checks" payable to cash, which were freely circulated and accepted as legal currency.

[Mazeltov Cocktail]

25. At my Walmart and Home Depot...

They round up to the next dollar if you don't have correct change... I walked out of Home Depot and I carry change now if I am going to pay cash.
Can you imagine how much these big box stores are making off this...no other stores in my area are even talking about a change shortage.

[roamer65]

29. Depends on how they are doing it.

If it’s 49 cents are they rounding down and 50 cents or greater are they rounding up?

[Mazeltov Cocktail]

30. If the amount due is $10.02 and you don't have 2 cents, you pay $11.00.😡

[lunasun]

31. I have experienced what roamer65 was asking you. With that,I figure they win some they lose some

Quarters only and cut at .50
no pennies nickels dimes around I understand ok
But if they are not cutting 50/50 and always taking the round up?hell no

[roamer65]

32. Bingo.

[roamer65]

33. That's bullshit.

I would pull out the credit card at that point.

[MissB]

34. That seems...illegal?

I’m guessing.

[DeminPennswoods]

35. Local Aldi's is only taking exact change if you pay

with cash. Walmart self-check out are credit card only now as they are saving their coins for the cashier lines. IIRC, if you don't have exact change, you have the option of donating the the difference to next dollar up a charity. Local Giant Eagle supermarket still has change at self-checkouts, but also offers an option to round up with the difference going to local food bank.

[Mazeltov Cocktail]

43. My Aldi's has no restrictions on change, only Walmart and Home Depot.

Wawa, Dollar Tree, Publix, etc. no problem...

[roamer65]

28. Time to eliminate the cent and nickel.

Round to nearest 10c like New Zealand.

Keep the dime and replace the quarter with a smaller, octagonal half dollar.

Actually start using $1 coins and make a new, smaller bimetallic $2 coin with intermittent reeding.

Each coin would then have a very unique tactile feel, helping the visually impaired greatly.

[DeminPennswoods]

36. Good luck with that idea

[sarcasmo]

37. The tooth fair takes debit cards now.

[denem]

39. How to spread COVID

1. Don't wear a mask.
2. Don't use hand sanitizer
3. Pay by coins

[roamer65]

49. Copper is a very powerful anti-viral and anti-bacterial.

Hospitals used to have brass doorknobs and bed railings because of it. Copper releases an ionic storm on anything that lands on it. Our coins are mostly copper.

However, cotton fiber (paper) money is VERY dirty. I saw a list of the top ten dirtiest things a while back. Front of a surgical mask was number one. Paper money was number 2. A teller at my bank caught CV. I highly suspect it was from handling the paper money.

When I make a cash withdrawal, I now make it a larger amount and have the teller put it into a ziplock bag. The bag then sits for 7-10 days to decontaminate.