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Why do U.S. coins seem to be in short supply?

• vikramkr 6y ago
  What does a shortage of coins look like today? Difficulty paying for a parking space or a gumball? Is it just difficulty giving change in a cash transaction? Wouldn't stores have access to banks that arent closed to be able to give change? What's the role that coins play today that would be noticeable?
  • timwilder 6y ago
    There’s some businesses like laundromats serving areas where many folks don’t have washer/dryer in unit that are still coin operated. It’s a real impact for those since people now need to go further to wash/dry or find friends or family who will help out.
    • krapp 6y ago
      A lot of apartment complexes also have on-site laundromats that are coin operated. I've never understood why the cost of that isn't included in the rent, landlords can't be taking that much of a cut from it.
      • rootsudo 6y ago
        It's to subsidize the cost of the machines and the electricity and water. The machines are commercial grade, depending on the amount of tenants they will have high wear and will cost to purchase $3000 each. Minimum of a set is 2 so $6000. If you use a management company that deals in laundromat and repair, the capex is not there but you'll ave a monthly opex of about $50-100 that should include a guarantee and onsite tech. Per set. It scales up pretty quickly because you can, maybe, push a one set onto 4 units. -- But it's also a sign of cheaper locations and landlords to not have your own washer/dryer inside.
        • xenihn 6y ago
          The commercial grade machines I've dealt with in SF apartment and condo buildings were worse overall than the non-commercial ones in Victorians and townhomes. They could take larger loads and washed/dried faster, but they had worse sensors, distributed detergent worse, ran too hot for drying, and slightly damaged some of my clothes.
        • throwaway0a5e 6y ago
          Up front purchase price doesn't matter since it amortizes out over the life of the machine. All you're doing is paying up front for the downtime for service it won't need compared to cheaper consumer grade stuff. I used to do facilities maintenance for a hotel. We weren't space constrained in terms of laundry so we ran a fleet of cheapo consumer machines. One was down at any given time but it was still cheaper than introducing fewer high grade commercial machines. We had some commercial stuff that was ancient and still worked. Didn't break much less but it was easier to work on (primarily because age) when it did. Obviously if you want to minimize downtime because you're an absentee landlord who has to pay a PM company to do a visit every time a lid sensor fucks off then having commercial machines makes sense. In terms of dollars per load the cheap consumer stuff is in fact cheaper, assuming you don't live in a regulatory capture hellscape where you are supposed to have a plumber connect your drains and gas lines (or are willing to ignore those rules).
      • i_am_proteus 6y ago
        Charging per-use prevents inefficient use (very small loads in large machines) and tenants letting their friends use the machines, eventually turning the laundry room into the free neighborhood laundromat. Some buildings have switched (decades ago) to reloadable laundry cards to avoid having to deal with change.
      • Wowfunhappy 6y ago
        I use a laundry service to pick up my laundry, do it for me, and drop it off. (I wouldn't pay for it if I had a machine in my apartment, but I don't, so this is the tradeoff.) I'm glad the cost of laundry isn't included in my rent, because I'd just be paying extra.
      • SilasX 6y ago
        Having some additional charge/busywork helps to throttle demand so people don't hog them as much and make some effort to economize usage. Depending on the people served, that may or may not be necessary. I think in CA, such charges are limited by the same laws as rent control, so at least they tend to be under-priced. At one I lived at (if SF's Tenderloin), it charged well below what nearby laundromats did per load ($1.25 vs much more for similar size).
      • sueders101 6y ago
        Many pay-to-use(coin or card) laundry rooms in apartment complexes are entirely contracted out to a third party company that handles everything; payment collection, machine leasing, service/repairs, etc. On the whole I think it's easier for them this way. https://www.wash.com/360-laundry-room-solution/ https://www.wash.com/360-laundry-room-solution/ https://www.coinomatic.com/multi-housing-coin-laundry-solutions/ https://www.coinomatic.com/multi-housing-coin-laundry-soluti...
        • late2part 6y ago
          That's very interesting. In my MCOL of city I've been looking at buying some apartment buildings and many of them advertise the W/D in the building as a source of revenue.
          • tingletech 6y ago
            the building owner gets a cut, even with the more fully managed option.
        • tesseract 6y ago
          The small apartment building I live in is set up this way. I don't really mind, but I wish they would find a way to accept cards (credit and/or reloadable) rather than only coins because as it stands right now, I have to go to the bank and get $50 worth of "laundry tokens" (quarters) every few months, since I don't spend enough cash day-to-day to naturally collect enough change for the laundry.
          • ny2ko 6y ago
            I just did this 2 weeks ago at a chase in SF. Usually I get $50 but I was restricted to only $20. Didn't really this shortage was the reason
            • Larrikin 6y ago
              I complained when they would only give me twenty last week in Chicago since I always got fifty before and was told this was the reason
      • throwaway0a5e 6y ago
        >I've never understood why the cost of that isn't included in the rent, landlords can't be taking that much of a cut from it. Because they're a massive cash cow that people don't think about when comparing price of rent vs what you get.
    • SilasX 6y ago
      I use a wash-and-fold service[1] at a laundromat that serves a mainly Hispanic neighborhood, and they recently started rounding my charges to the nearest dollar. [1] Pay someone to do your laundry by the pound.
    • jdxcode 6y ago
      can't they just take the coins from the laundry machines and put them back into the coin machine?
  • jccooper 6y ago
    Stores are unable to handle cash transactions because they can't make change, because they can't get enough from their banks, because the banks aren't getting enough supply, apparently.
    • catalogia 6y ago
      In the past month I've received four half-dollar coins as change, which is four more than I've seen in the past decade. It seems like stores are reaching the bottom of their coin drawers; using coins they normally wouldn't.
      • bmlzootown 6y ago
        At work, we've all basically agreed that if we run out of change and can't get any more, that we'll bring in our own jars, count it out, and exchange it for cash. It's a last resort, for sure, but we've already discussed it. As of right now, we're limited to one roll of each denomination ($17.50) by our bank, so the need may very well eventually arise, and that means that some of my collection might just end up as someone else's change.
        • dotancohen 6y ago
          Or don't declare your collection. In fact, as the value of coins continues to rise, I would try to maximize (but not horde) my influx of coins, not willfully exchange them for a less-demand form of currency. Remember, the concept of supply and demand is still valid even for currency marked with an official denomination. You could think of that marking as the _minimum_ value of the currency, as guaranteed by the state.
      • Symbiote 6y ago
        Why don't Americans use half dollars? I think everywhere else I've travelled, someone (or a machine) giving change will optimize it to the fewest coins. £3.85 would be £2, £1, 50p, 20p, 10p, 5p. The only exception is something like a food stall that's set all their prices to multiples of €1 (I've seen this several times in Germany), they might keep plenty of €1 and €2 coins for change. If someone pays with smaller coins, they have no use for them and will give them as change.
  • Avshalom 6y ago
    Every walmart in Albuquerque has limited cash transactions to about half their registers.
    • protomyth 6y ago
      Yep, same in rural North Dakota. All the self serves are card only. Screws up a lot of people here, but we already almost forced a lot of people to get Walmart Money Card or the equivalent because they were required to switch to direct deposit during the stay at home, or have their checks mailed. Welcome to more pain for the unbanked.
  • toast0 6y ago
    Coin shortages make it harder to pay for things in cash. Transportation like ferries, light rail, commuter rail, etc often are accepting bills and returning coins as change. If they don't have coins to provide change, you may need to provide exact change, pay more and accept the loss (this is common on buses when paying with bills), not be able to purchase a ticket, or have to use a credit/debit card. In my area, the county bus system decided to make the buses free to avoid handling money and they didn't make change anyway, and the state ferries notified people to be prepared to make exact change and/or use cards. Same thing happens if coin operated machines with bill accepters don't have coins to make change. It might not be obvious, but the coins inserted into most machines aren't directly dispensable as change, so if it runs out of change, it won't be able to make change until the operator comes to service it, which might be longer intervals these days. It sounds like the coin requests from banks to the federal reserve can't all be filled, and the federal reserve is rationing coins until that changes. I suspect some of the usually net coin receiving businesses aren't open, or aren't receiving the same number of coins, making it harder for the net coin giving businesses to get the supplies they need.
  • bmlzootown 6y ago
    Well, take the store I work at, for example -- we've been told, by our bank that is open, that they're now limiting change orders to one roll of each denomination (for a total of $17.50), as they themselves are limited in what change they can get. Usually, on a per week basis, we do one change order of at least over $100. Over $100 vs $17.50... The difference adds up rather quick, even if you do a run every other day (not quite sure how frequent change orders can be before they limit that too, though).
  • jmann99999 6y ago
    I can answer the "wouldn't stores have access to banks that aren't closed?" question. I work in a niche industry that enables stores to order coin from banks. The issue is that stores can't get coins from banks because the banks don't have them either. Banks order coins (and notes) from the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is shorting the shipment of coins to all major banks. So, when a store like Target orders coin from its bank, they may order $500 in pennies. The bank then may ship them no pennies or a fraction of the order, depending on the bank vault the coin is coming from, what inventory they have, and formulas in place. Look for this issue to go on through at least Christmas.
    • EEMac 6y ago
      It's like the Federal Reserve has massive, if indirect, control over the whole economy. That's funny.
  • a3n 6y ago
    Truck driver. Many truck stop convenience stores, many Walmarts have signs asking for coins, and/or to use plastic. Saw one sign offering coin redemption (I guess in one of those machines) for no fee.
  • deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  • virtue3 6y ago
    access to mass transit?
  • scld 6y ago
    The laundry in my apartment is coin-op....
• d33lio 6y ago
  Nobody uses them.
  • ironmagma 6y ago
    The rich certainly don’t, but if you’re poor you need them more.
  • derision 6y ago
    There's millions of Americans using coin operated laundry machines, and that's just one example
    • jldugger 6y ago
      Judging from this rando laundromat youtuber I saw a few months back, that's basically a closed circular coin economy: you put bills in the money changer, then coins in the washers and dryers. The owner then takes the coins out of the machines and puts them back in the money changer. In that scenario, bills are what enter and leave the laundromat. But in a regional coin shortage, someone with spare time might just choose to loot the coin machine, and gum up the internal coin economy. Banks are apparently offering an extra 5 percent on coins: https://www.kctv5.com/a-bank-is-paying-people-to-bring-in-their-spare-change-to-help-local-businesses/article_38745cd0-582b-5e58-bece-dce966cc5a68.html https://www.kctv5.com/a-bank-is-paying-people-to-bring-in-th... This does remind me of the stories a few years back about credit card churners buying coins from the us mint in bulk for the cash back, then depositing at the bank before the bills came due.
      • tallanvor 6y ago
        In laundromats, sure. But many smaller apartment complexes might have one or two sets of coin operated washers and dryers. I've never seen places like that have change machines available.
  • HomeDeLaPot 6y ago
    In college, I was one of the people dependent on coin-operated laundry. If I couldn't have gotten coins, I would've been forced to drive several blocks at a minimum and spend more time and money on laundry. Inconvenient for me, but especially bad for the old lady downstairs without a car.
• HeavenFox 6y ago
  Hopefully this would prompt the U.S. to finally deprecate the penny
• ridaj 6y ago
  I feel like a smart country would take this opportunity to develop electronic, no-fee payment wallets, not just bring up a coin task force...
  • kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
    That would kill important business models that prey on poor people.
    • jessaustin 6y ago
      You're going to have to give us more information than this. Sure, lots of business models "prey on poor people", but which ones of those are threatened by electronic wallets?
      • dylan604 6y ago
        Lots of poor people do not have bank accounts, so there's no way they can use electronic only systems.
        • 9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
          Electronic only systems like M-Pesa can replace banks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa
        • mixmastamyk 6y ago
          Not true, you can load money on a smart card via kiosk. This is already available almost everywhere, although would need to be accepted at POS.
      • kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
        Payday loan sharks are the big one. Universal banking puts them out of business.
        • 6y ago
• mxcrossb 6y ago
  Obviously the federal government should’ve paid the stimulus money in dimes
• latchkey 6y ago
  The obvious solution is to make everything digital, but that impacts people who aren't digital. Never mind the anonymity aspect. The other solution could be to get rid of cents all together. This is what Vietnam has done and it is fantastic not having to deal with small metal change. Although, this created a new problem, they need to lose a few 0's. Being a dong millionaire (largest bill is 500k) means you've got about $45 in your pocket. Heh.
  • neverartful 6y ago
    The anonymity aspect is a huge deal.
    • latchkey 6y ago
      I wasn't discounting it being a huge deal, which is why I mentioned it. But we don't need metal change for that when we can use 'paper' bills (airquotes because in Vietnam they use plastic bills).
    • RandomBacon 6y ago
      There's Monero, but even Bitcoin (which has a 5 year headstart and is not anonymous) is barely supported. Though I think I would still prefer physical cash over digital cash even if it was just as ubiquitous.
• moomin 6y ago
  There’s a phenomenal amount of double-think going on in this sentence. “While there is an adequate overall amount of coins in the economy, the slowed pace of circulation has reduced available inventories in some areas of the country.” Literally the second clause contradicts the claim of the first.
  • codefined 6y ago
    I believe it is implying that there is enough coins in the country for everyone. However, unequal distribution due to COVID means some specific areas are lacking.
  • zdragnar 6y ago
    How so? The first is speaking broadly, the second refers to specific localities. Some areas face a shortage because there is an oversupply in others, with a total supply that is adequate. Were they circulating more, the concentrations would presumably level out (or so the argument reads to me).
    • moomin 6y ago
      The economy isn’t a concept that can be separated from the rate of circulation. If there are shortages, there aren’t enough coins. If there were enough, the problem could be solved by booking a couple of lorries to move them around.
  • cvoss 6y ago
    "Overall" vs. "in some areas". "The average is fine, but the standard deviation is high" is how I read that sentence, which is not a self-contradicting claim.
  • chrismcb 6y ago
    You can have enough coins, but if they aren't circulating, then it doesn't really matter. If I'm hording a thousand dollars of coins, those coins are part of the inventory but aren't helping anyone.
  • temptemptemp111 6y ago
• late2part 6y ago
  It's my opinion that the web page is a non-answer. It's unclear to me from the page how the supply of coins is disrupted by the pandemic. Perhaps it's because the mint is shut down, but they don't say that. If coinage isn't an 'essential' business, that seems odd.
  • secondderiv 6y ago
    The first of the related links has the full answer "The primary issue with coin is a dramatic deceleration of coin circulation through the supply chain. As of April 2020, the U.S. Treasury estimates that the total value of coin in circulation is $47.8 billion, up from $47.4 billion as of April 2019. While there is adequate coin in the economy, the slowed pace of circulation has meant that sufficient quantities of coin are not readily available where needed. With establishments like retail shops, bank branches, transit authorities and laundromats closed, the typical places where coin enters our society have slowed or even stopped the normal circulation of coin. The coin supply chain includes many participants, from the U.S. Mint who produces new coin, to the Federal Reserve who distributes coin on the U.S. Mint’s behalf, to armored carriers, banks, retailers and consumers, all of whom have a role to play in helping to resolve this issue." https://frbservices.org/news/communications/063020-federal-reserve-convenes-us-coin-task-force.html https://frbservices.org/news/communications/063020-federal-r...
• a3n 6y ago
  My first thought at the headline was that as people head home to isolation, the coins in their pockets stay home with them. Which is probably true. But the article talks about closing businesses, and those coins leaving circulation until those processes work through.
  • anon73044 6y ago
    >https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/07/black-owned-businesses-may-not-survive-covid-19/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/07/black-own... The numbers are kind of all over the place depending on the source, and I'd imagine the ~40 million people on unemployment would be holding on to hard currency pretty tightly too.
• TheGrim-888 6y ago
  I'm surprised to see so much advocating for digital currency in here. Is nobody else worried about the government having an electronic record of every transaction that's made? They'll have data about everything that anyone has ever bought, where and when they bought it, and a graph connecting everyone who has ever done business. There will no longer be any anonymous way to trade. I personally consider the end of paper money to be the final nail in the coffin for the country. There's no coming back after that, the government has complete and utter control over the citizenry from that point on.
• GeekyBear 6y ago
  If the Fed would put Coinstar type machines in Post Offices without charging a fee or taking a cut, I think they would find a lot more people who are willing to get their coins back into circulation. It would have to be cheaper on an ongoing basis than constantly minting coins. Wrapping coins and exchanging them at a bank is just too tedious and time consuming.
  • belltaco 6y ago
    The Fed's stated goal is to create jobs, not destroy them.
    • stepstop 6y ago
      > The Fed's stated goal is to create jobs, not destroy them. That’s not true. Here’s the truth: https://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed.htm
      • kbutler 6y ago
        https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/what-economic-goals-does-federal-reserve-seek-to-achieve-through-monetary-policy.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/what-economic-goals-does... The Congress has directed the Fed to conduct the nation's monetary policy to support three specific goals: * maximum sustainable employment, * stable prices, and * moderate long-term interest rates. These goals are sometimes referred to as the Fed's "mandate." [hn formatting added]
        • stepstop 6y ago
          Thank you. My mistake, not sure how I missed that word!
      • greesil 6y ago
        I think they are referring to quantitative easing.
      • 6y ago
• AnimalMuppet 6y ago
  So I went to this store yesterday. The cashier asked me if I wanted to donate the change to the Childrens' Hospital. By either brilliance or great timing, they started doing this about the time the coin shortage started.
• dboreham 6y ago
  My bank told me the reason is the feds are capacity limited on coin decontamination. Bills they just burn and print more, but coins cost too much to re-smelt.
  • dgzl 6y ago
    Seems reasonable
  • mensetmanusman 6y ago
    Ha, b.s. you can warm coins moderately to denature the virus...
    • skj 6y ago
      you could also let them sit in a box for a few days.
      • deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
    • kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
      And the ones with gummy schmoo on them?
  • ars 6y ago
    Why do they need to decontaminate the coins? Just let them sit for a week and the virus will be completely dead. 2 weeks if you are really worried.
    • DavidPeiffer 6y ago
      I cannot speak to the specific challenges in the banking industry, but from a manufacturing perspective, you can't just add a week of inventory without a ton of headache. For most supply chains, adding a week of inventory would mean bringing on additional warehousing space and filling everything they have to the gills. I'm familiar with a factory who has a few hours of inventory on-site, and no more than ~3 days in the accompanying warehouse. They'd need about 2 more equal size warehouses to add a week of inventory.
• endogui 6y ago
  Why are coins more impacted than bills? Shouldn't a slowdown in the movement of cash throughout the economy affect both coins and bills roughly equally?
  • quickthrowman 6y ago
    There’s always a ton of cash moving around. People don’t pay for weed and cocaine with nickels and dimes, they use bills ;)
  • kdmccormick 6y ago
    My guess: Tha article states that closure of bank premises is driving the shortage. You can get new coins at banks. You can't get coins from ATMs or grocery store cash-back.
• DavidPeiffer 6y ago
  My mom took change into her metro area bank last week because they were giving 10% over face value for change. She got an extra $9. Nobody keeps change as an investment, but compared to interest rates the bank was offering on savings accounts, this was an incredible return. I'm curious if anybody with accounts at other banks tried withdrawing change to deposit in this bank?
  • ars 6y ago
    As a percent it was a great return, but as an absolute number it's rather poor. How long did the whole process take her (including collecting the coins and getting to the bank)? Half an hour? Longer? There's just not enough money in that to be worth it.
    • patmorgan23 6y ago
      How much did she burn on transportation to turn in the coins
    • DavidPeiffer 6y ago
      For sure, it's not a business model by any means, really just a quirk of the times. In this specific case, she had all the coins that accumulated over a year or so, and just took the big jar in on her errands. Probably added 10 minutes or so. $9 isn't a big deal for her, but for someone who is unemployed with low earning potential, $9 (or milking the incentive structure) would mean a lot more.
  • PacketPaul 6y ago
    Yup. Father in-law had this quarter collection. For whatever reason he spent decades collections quarters from each of the states and had well over $500 worth of quarters. None of us wanted his quarters. He was able to sell them at 3 quarters per dollar, a 25% profit!
    • WalterBright 6y ago
      That's a 33% profit. Anyhow, considering inflation, he still lost money.
• irrational 6y ago
  Will this hasten the, presumably, eventual move to a 100% digital economy? I’d like to see statistics on how often people use analog money. Is there correlation by certain socio economic classes? I imagine drug dealers are 100% analog while CEOs are 100% digital. Where does everyone in between land?
  • sneak 6y ago
    CEOs are counterparties in the drug trade, too. Everyone uses cash for some transactions, mostly because it affords privacy.
    • irrational 6y ago
      Not everyone. I personally have not touched cash in 15 years or so. I really haven’t had any need to. In all that time I haven’t had a single experience where card was not accepted.
      • sneak 6y ago
        Either you live in Scandinavia, or you aren’t sufficiently tipping coat check, valet, bellhops, delivery runners, et c. Cash is also essential for grease/bribes.
        • tim58 6y ago
          > Cash is also essential for grease/bribes. Am I not bribing enough people? I've never had to.
          • lotsofpulp 6y ago
            Even if you needed to, there are much better ways to bribe than cash in the US.
          • sneak 6y ago
            I once had a friend who was bleeding from a head wound from getting attacked on the street. Not life threatening, but messy. The complication was that it was 1am, new year’s day (NYE night, an hour after midnight), on Union Square in NYC, and it was raining. Not ideal conditions in the pre-Uber world. Had I not had $400 in cash to flag down a limo(!) and dissuade him from his scheduled appointment, she would have spent the next 3 hours bleeding either on the subway or on foot as we walked back to Brooklyn. Another time, I got stopped on the highway to the Cancun airport driving back from Tulum. The cop kept saying something about how he would have to write me a ticket, over and over again. Eventually it clicked, and I asked “is it okay if I just pay the fine here?” Sometimes, cash saves the fuckin’ day.
• fourseventy 6y ago
  when is the last time someone used a coin to pay for something that wasn't a coin operated machine. Just get rid of them, or make coins that are worth >= $1
  • kdmccormick 6y ago
    Paying for parking without having to involve my phone or credit card is pretty nice.
    • jerzyt 6y ago
      My pants don't have big enough pockets to carry enough change given the parking rates in California.
    • rags2riches 6y ago
      I like paying for parking with my phone. It lets me extend when the time is about to run out and cancel the remainder when I leave early.
      • antsar 6y ago
        Does cancelling refund the extra to your card? I assumed most systems would just eat it so I may as well leave it for the next guy.
        • rags2riches 6y ago
          Canceling refunds the extra amount to my balance. The app only charges the balance once a month. You can't leave it for the next guy, because it's not a parking spot that's paid for. Instead, you pay to park a certain car in any spot in a larger parking zone.
  • coronadisaster 6y ago
    get rid of at least the pennies, nickles and dimes (because the dimes are just too small)
• coinward 6y ago
  Seigniorage for coins is at or near 0. Inflation did this
• jb775 6y ago
  Don't expect any help from the govt fixing this, it's a win/win from their perspective. No coins means more businesses forcing credit/debit use. More credit/debit use means it's harder to hide cash transactions and therefore means more tax revenue for the govt. As an added benefit, it creates permanent paper trails that can be utilized when convenient. I go out of my way to pay cash, now just need to make sure I bring enough change.
  • SifJar 6y ago
    This argument always confuses me, as if "it makes it easier to not pay our taxes" is a legitimate argument for using cash
    • rapnie 6y ago
      Yea. But the paper trail argument is a good one. Banks holding minutely detailed info of your purchase history. A PII goldmine waiting to be exploited.
      • dzhiurgis 6y ago
        As if supermarkets don’t track your purchases...
        • rapnie 6y ago
          If you pay in cash they don't (not as PII anyway), unless you scan your loyalty card or they have facial recognition running on their cams.
      • closeparen 6y ago
        The same amount of PII is on file for your account regardless of your transactions.
        • rapnie 6y ago
          If you only extract once a week from an ATM and pay in cash? No way.
• janitor61 6y ago
  Is this a uniquely US issue, and if so, why? Other countries have enacted similar lockdowns, wouldn't a coin shortage show up elsewhere given similar circumstances?
  • lottin 6y ago
    It's not unique to the US. Last month I was at a shop in Barcelona, Spain, and the shopkeeper told me she was glad I was paying with coins because they were running out of them.
    • 13of40 6y ago
      Did you get a sense for whether the higher denomination coins like €1 and €2 are getting impacted as much as lower ones? I'm trying to think of a reason that this effect would be coin-specific and not just, for instance, a function of the denomination.
  • jedberg 6y ago
    In Europe it is generally cheaper as a merchant to take credit vs cash, because they have low credit processing fees. Because of this they take credit for pretty much any transaction. In the US, it's not uncommon to see places only take credit for purchases over $20, especially restaurants.
    • robk 6y ago
      Have you been to Germany? Good luck with getting any cards accepted. And I think you misuse credit for debit - in UK many online retailers only accept debit cards and until the lockdown many mom and pops still really seemed to hate getting out that card machine.
      • jedberg 6y ago
        Yeah Germany is a strange outlier. They have all the tech but just don’t trust it I guess? And yes I used credit as a shorthand for debit/credit.
• the100rabh 6y ago
  I think US has a good penetration of cards. I would be thinking that cash usage would be plummeted to all time low especially after the viral news that covid can spread through cash(fake maybe). Being not from US I would like to understand why people would still use cash and coins in US.
• everdrive 6y ago
  Any bank I've been to won't even take coins unless they're counted and wrapped. It's hard to keep them useful.
• wil421 6y ago
  For the past 4 weeks I was in North West Florida and it was almost impossible to get coins. I went to 3 grocery stores and they all denied me. Gas stations even had signs warning customers to use exact change. The credit unions in my network wouldn’t give anything out either. Thankfully Loomis dropped a bunch off at my condo’s property management office. Most places told me they were only accepting new coins from the cash delivery companies due to COVID.
• paulie_a 6y ago
  Personally I see this as a good thing. The less availability means the less usage. Hopefully this can eventually usher in an era of no coins what so ever.
• Nightshaxx 6y ago
  I think it might be worth it to consider what coins we use nowadays. When the half-penny was abolished, it had more purchasing power than a dime. [1] Could we get rid of at least the penny so there is less waste? [1] https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/04/bringing-dollars-and-cents-into-this-century/please-finally-end-the-penny https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/04/bringing-do...
• marcoperaza 6y ago
  A quarter today is worth less than a penny in 1900. Maybe this is a good time to get rid of all coins except maybe the quarter. It is frankly ridiculous to be dealing with pennies, nickels, and dimes, worthless coins.
• aazaa 6y ago
  It's odd how the article dances around the true problem: when push comes to shove, there's not enough supply to go around. On the one hand, it's a pattern that's played out over and over again this year. Toilet Paper. Paper Towels. Meat. Canned goods. Flour. Even yeast. On the other hand, the Fed is the sole agency in charge of US currency. It swears up and down that there is plenty of physical currency to satisfy all needs. And it can't deliver on the simple promise of supplying coins. Trouble ahead.