The next shortage

[gwpercle]

My daughter was talking about it last week but I didn't take it seriously .
This morning on national news it was announced .
There is a shortage of U. S. Coins !
I wonder how much a penny will cost you on E-Bay now .

At one time a local bank wouldn't take coins ... they didn't want to fool with sorting and wrapping .
Another bank didn't want to take Covid-19 infected cash because they didn't know how to disinfect it to prevent the spread ... now they say rolled coins are OK .

I though plastic credit / bank cards and pay-pal did away with the need for coins... Just why is there a shortage... I don't get it .
Gary

[bakerjw]

I have heard because banks haven't been taking them.
But the tin foil crowd is also saying that it is to get us to go to a cashless society.

Look at the rush on toilet paper a couple of months ago. We went into the store the other day and they had pallets of it everywhere.

[WILCO]

The cashless society is real.
Nothing tinfoil about it.
Coin shortage is from cashless transactions.
There's a great majority of Americans not venturing out and spending money.
Coins are being taken out of circulation because they're at home in jars on the counter.
Highly doubt anybody is going to like it when the wheels come off the economic wagon.
Reality is the greatest teacher.

[WILCO]

Look at the rush on toilet paper a couple of months ago. We went into the store the other day and they had pallets of it everywhere.

Supply has met demand.

[Winger Ed.]

There's the same amount as there was last month.
They may not be making quite as many news ones due to the virus, but they're mostly just not in circulation right now.
Instead, they're all in bowls on everybody's dresser.

It would help if the govt. didn't take them out of circulation when they have the least little bit of tarnish on them.
In the old days, a new coin was almost an oddity, and the ones in our pockets were often so worn,
you about couldn't read the date on one.

Same thing with paper money. You never get old, thin, worn bills any more.
In the old days, you darn near had to go to the bank and ask to get a new paper bill.

It's almost as if a new coin or bill goes out of the bank, get's spent a few times, and when it comes back
to the bank from a high percentage cash business, it gets sent back to the Treasury, and replaced with a new one.

[farmbif]

in Georgia Walmart no longer makes change not sure what it is in other places, no matter what the difference is in total amount due to payment. from $0.01 to $99.99 you get a gift card these days

[bedbugbilly]

But . . . in normal situation . . . those coins sitting in bowls and jars at home would not be in circulation anyway . . . until the person took then to the bank and turned them in. My wife and I are the same way . . once a year, we always took our collected "pocket change" to the bank, ran it through their counter and cashed it out. There was no shortage in those times of coins.

Curing the Covid crisis - a higher percentage of those in quarantine have turned to "on-line" purchases for many consumer goods - yea, still trips to the grocery store and gas station periodically, but pocket changed produced for the jar at home drastically reduced.

Sorry . .. . but I don't buy the "shortage" . . . . maybe 'cause I'm old and seen too much shenanagins by the guvment in years past. We are being forced into a cashless society - and I personally don't like it. At the CU we use here in Arizona - no more tellers - you talk to a computer showing a teller someplace many miles away. Hey . . "cashless" is good for the banks and why wouldn't it be . . . high interest credit cards used by so many without common sense who have no idea of how much they are paying in interest when they buy something the "really need" - i.e. something they could save up for and buy but they need instant gratification . . . all they know is that they can make a monthly payment . . they don't see how long it will take to pay off - if they ever do. Debit cards? Oh my . . . my wife and I are asked how we an possibly live without one!

And I won't even go into the state of the educational system where we have young people who can't even figure4 out how to give the correct change by counting back - they need a machine to tell them how much to return to the customer.

Computers . . . cell phones . . . computer watches . . . a cashless society . . . all bodes for trouble. Cyber attacks? Hacking? What will happen if a truly serious cyber attack wipes out financial records of possibly millions of people?

No different than a "paperless" society that is being pushed . . . especially by the Left treehuggers . . . Really? Will someone please explain why then, every time a new law is passed it usually requires more paperwork for the taxpayer? Just one good example . . . Obama Care . . . . every taxpayer received a form that had to be filed with their taxes to show if they did or did not have health insurance so that the IRS could collect the "fine" if the taxpayer did not have health insurance. That requirement required an envelope, the sheet of paper for the form and the sheet of paper for explanation/information. The first year it was in effect, we received the mailing twice. The reason? The form was "new" and our insurance company did not check one of the boxes so they had to send out a second mailing. Just multiply that one mailing by the number of U.S. taxpayers . . . oh yea . . . that certainly contributed to a "paperless" society!

On the coins . . . I talked with a friend the other day who is scared about the way things are going and the possibility of a depression. She is a very well educated woman . . . what I often refer to as "book smart but street stupid". She was telling me that she was thinking about gathering coins in case there was a depression. She had talked to an older gentlemen she knew who had grown up during the Depression and he had told her how his dad had saved coins and had them to pay for things since very few had money. Now when I grew up, I heard about the Great Depression every day - my Dad was born in 1908 and he was married with one child at the time of the Depression (I was part of a "second family"). I listened to my friend who thought it was a good idea to hoard coins like her older friend had . . . and then I reminder her that during the Depression, the coin was all silver . . . not the copper clad coins of today . . and that their value was based on the silver, not what the denomination that the guvment stamped on them.

[Nelsonholsters]

Well the biggest problem I have with cash not being used is think about how many cash transactions are made everyday with drug deals, I'm sure there is still plenty of cash still floating around.
I don't think dealers are taken plastic yet.

Sent from my Moto E (4) using Tapatalk

[frkelly74]

Supply has met demand.

But my feeling is that the price has jumped a bit.

[Conditor22]

1) I started a swear jar

2) They are all in wishing wells from people wishing 2020 would be over

[Pigboat]

in Georgia Walmart no longer makes change not sure what it is in other places, no matter what the difference is in total amount due to payment. from $0.01 to $99.99 you get a gift card these days

Save up 10 or 12 of these then go shopping with them, some two dollar bills, Susan B Anthony dollars, Scacgawea dollars, Presidential dollars and a few half dollar coins and take a picture of the young cashier's face.

[dangitgriff]

This country has a shortage, all right...
Of LIBERTY!
R/Griff

[Geezer in NH]

What we have no shortage of is IDIOTS!

[Nelsonholsters]

Do if we start having another ammo shortage I wonder if we can powder the idiots behinds and shoot them like in the song??

Sent from my Moto E (4) using Tapatalk

[bikerbeans]

I know where all the coins are, in a big jar on my kitchen counter. I can't lift the dang thing.

BB

[Martin Luber]

Banks and businesses want to buy certified rolls from the mint, they don't want to handle your loose coins. That's where the shortage comes from

[samari46]

I've been saving change long before any covid virus showed up. Been doing it for years. Banks around here will not take loose change. So have to get the rolls from the bank or buy them and spend some quality time rolling all of them up. Then write your account number on the rolls as well. But since we now have the virus been paying with plastic. Went in for our two week shopping trip and they had a big sign saying "due to the shortage of coins we suggest alternate means of paying for your items" And "No change will be given out". Which basically means pay by checks,debit or credit cards. And the coin machines get a percentage of what you feed it. I heard 10% per transaction,and could be wrong on that one. Regardless they still charge you a fee. As for me I will roll them up and to the bank I shall go. Frank

[fcvan]

Weird, My bank takes loose change, counts it and the machine rolls it. There are coin exchangers at the grocery store but they charge a percentage unless you put the 'money' on a prepaid card for this or that company.

I got to where I would have 20 or 30 dollars and change, and just use the self checkout at Walmart to buy a deli sandwich/tray before heading to the range or out in the hills. Mostly, I would get such a lunch when travelling back and for from CA to Colorado.

My brother used to empty his pockets in a jar, sometimes putting in folding money as well. Full jar, and he would take his grand kids to Dysneyland. Another friend, a truck driver, put his change in the ash tray of his Peterbuilt. He didn't smoke and those trays were cavernous. When full, he and his wife would take a load through Vegas and he would stay a day or two on his way through.

I don't think there is a shortage, just a reduction of folks going to various places and performing cash transactions. It's too easy to stay at home and order online for things and not risk being out in public.

I toured the Denver Mint decades ago, and watched their operations. According to the tour guide, the Mint made 6 million dollars a day, just in pennies. Nickels, dimes, quarters, etc., was much more.

[wwmartin]

Around here the coin counting machine is in the lobby and the lobby has been closed for several months. The credit union I belong to still has a sign on on theirs that it's not in use. Don't know why, maybe change harbours cooties.
Bill

[AK Caster]

My daughter was talking about it last week but I didn't take it seriously .
This morning on national news it was announced .
There is a shortage of U. S. Coins !
I wonder how much a penny will cost you on E-Bay now .

At one time a local bank wouldn't take coins ... they didn't want to fool with sorting and wrapping .
Another bank didn't want to take Covid-19 infected cash because they didn't know how to disinfect it to prevent the spread ... now they say rolled coins are OK .

I though plastic credit / bank cards and pay-pal did away with the need for coins... Just why is there a shortage... I don't get it .
Gary

Surprised you just heard of it. Stores have been posting signs of the change shortage for at least a month. The reasons are very simple. Most adult males empty their pockets when they get home into a can. These same guys rarely leave home with any change in their pockets. Add in most mints are working at a reduced capacity.
Its not a conspiracy. Change is being taken out of circulation from people who save it. And not as much is being produced.