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My town has a bank. The same bank existed from 1892 until 2009. Since then it changes names about every 18 months. We have a small branch of a moderate credit union.

The credit union that is generally willing to order me a box of coin two or three times a month. The coin is generally older than at the bank, but it takes a week or more to get it. Mostly getting nickels of late. I asked if they would get me a box of cents and nickels for next week.
The lead teller told me, "The Fed has cut them off." The credit union has been told that because of COVID19, the mint is not able to produce coin like normal so the credit unions are being limited to three boxes of coin per week, no more. She then got on a tangent that she is thinking it is a conspiracy to make the economy cashless or die trying.

My bank was more than willing to give me a box of nickels and cents. They have ready cash on hand. No problem. At first glance they are 2019.

Wow- you’ve got me curious now. I need to do some checking. Stay tuned.

I have been wondering about this. I would think that there might be a coin shortage because of all the bank lobbies that are closed. Lobby coin counters are not available for people to dump their coin and you cant put much coin in a tube at the drive through. Anyone have thoughts on this?

Saw a clip from CNBC that there's an acute shortage of (regular) circulating coins here in the US. Apparently this is due to a huge increase of credit and debit transactions since the onset of the Coronavirus.

Many/most merchants would rather incur the swipe fee on the cards than deal with the added inconvenience of cash transactions. Add to that the growing concerns about whether coins CAN actually be a host carrier for the virus during these highly-sensitized times.

Elected officials have gone on record with Jerome Powell (Fed Chair) that something needs to be done to get US coins back into regular circulation. These concerned elected officials have been instructed to contact their nearest Federal Reserve Bank to learn more about the shortage and what can be done to alleviate it.

May we live in interesting times, eh?

There were a few bits on this subject in the news yesterday, here's one of them:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/17/got-cha ... rency.html

As for the OP's question, I haven't been trying.

Here is an article on msn.com that I saw...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/ ... &ocid=iehp

The text (for when the link goes away)...

There's a nationwide shortage of coins because of the pandemic

Masks were the first to go. Then toilet paper flew off shelves. And while Americans are being nickel-and-dimed with coronavirus-related costs in a shaky economy, the latest national shortage includes, well, nickels and dimes.

There's a coin shortage in the US.

"What's happened is that, with the partial closure of the economy, the flow of coins through the economy has gotten all — it's kind of stopped," Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said during a virtual hearing with the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday.

That's because the supply chain that coins usually flow through has been interrupted during the pandemic, Powell said.

Banks and businesses have shuttered or changed the way they operate. And so there are fewer coins reaching the public.

"The places where you go to give your coins, and get credit at the store and get cash — you know, folding money — those have not been working. Stores have been closed," he said. "So the whole system has kind of, had come to a stop."

The impact

During the hearing Wednesday, Rep. John Rose of Tennessee told Powell that banks in his district were notified by the Federal Reserve that they'd only receive a small portion of their weekly coin order. The banks told him they'd likely run out of coins by the end of the week or may need to round up or down if they run low, Rose said.

"In a time when pennies are the difference between profitability and loss, it seems like it might be a bigger concern than the announcement from the Fed would indicate that it is," Rose said.

What's being done

To mitigate the coin shortage, the Federal Reserve Banks began the "strategic allocation of coin inventories" this week to evenly distribute coins across banks and credit unions. Those "strategic allocation" measures include imposing order limits based on the historic order volume of those coins and how many coins the US Mint is currently producing.

In the meantime, the Federal Reserve is working with the Mint to produce more coins and lift supply constraints. The Reserve encourages institutions to order only the amount of coins they need to meet customer demand in the short term.

"Although the Federal Reserve is confident that the coin inventory issues will resolve once the economy opens more broadly and the coin supply chain returns to normal circulation patterns, we recognize that these measures alone will not be enough to resolve near‐term issues," the Reserve Banks statement said.

Federal Reserve officials believe the shortage is temporary, Powell said.

"As the economy reopens, we're seeing coins begin to move around again," he said.

Wow... the opposite of what I thought was going to happen.

Whatever happened to the mega millions in feds storage.

My credit union has been keeping the doors locked...only drive thru. However, if I need a document notarized or want to dump some coins, they will let me in. I have been dumping only...$2800 in nickels after sorting, but I haven't tried buying any coins lately.

Please combine the threads...

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=44436

It would be very interesting if Kyle Bass (of Texas) did the same thing he did ca. 2011, namely order $1 million in nickels. I’d LOVE to hear both ends of that phone call!

shinnosuke wrote:Please combine the threads...

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=44436

Good idea so done. Never done a merge before - pretty cool

JadeDragon wrote:

shinnosuke wrote:Please combine the threads...

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=44436

Good idea so done. Never done a merge before - pretty cool

Thank you!

Previously in this thread I mentioned being curious about the availability of coins in my area.

I decided to check out 4 big banks yesterday- all were BofA, Chase or Wells Fargo branches and all within a 2 square mile area.

BofA- lobby open. Nothing of interest available.

Chase- lobby open. Got $5.50 in halves, but no silver. Also was able to get $550 in original Unc. Presidential dollars.

Chase- needed to use drive-thru. No halves or Ikes, but teller said he can get coin in a week or so.

Wells Fargo- lobby open. No coins that I was looking for, but teller said they could give me $5 in pennies or $10 in nickels if I wanted. I passed on the offer.

From the local Walgreens, today.

I was at a Circle K last night and noticed they had a sign asking for quarters from anyone who could bring them in. For what it is worth, it was in an area with lots of low budget apartments and homeless people. And, no, I don’t live in a van down by the river! (Hat tip to the late great Chris Farley)

I was in a Quik Trip today with a sign that said they had no coins at all. All change less than a dollar would be given in gift cards.

I wonder how much money they will make off of people that never redeem these pocket change gift cards.

chris6084 wrote:I was in a Quik Trip today with a sign that said they had no coins at all. All change less than a dollar would be given in gift cards.

I wonder how much money they will make off of people that never redeem these pocket change gift cards.

However, overall they might lose money...
- cost of the plastic card
- the cost of the cashier payroll time of having to tell the customer that they have no coins and will have to return the difference in a card, and the customer who never listens carefully (looking at myself in the mirror) says, "Say what?!" and the cashier has to explain it all again
- payroll time of the cashier having to deal with the customer using the card for his next purchase along with some cash, some S&H Green stickers and a Mickey Mantle baseball trading card
- payroll time of the highest to lowest levels of the company to explain the reason for no coins and thus the necessity of returning money to customers in the form of gift cards
- lawyer time (even in-house) writing up the new rules and regulations and compliance warnings for the new policy so upper management can send out a decree that won't cost them their jobs when the Twitter crowd learns about it

Shinnosuke: I like what you said there.

Also, went to a Wendy’s yesterday and they said they desperately need coins, especially pennies, which surprised me. I’m digging through loose change as we speak to see what I can find for them. I suppose I’ll have to say “I’ll trade this zinc for that Frosty.”

Arkansas bank paying 2% over face for coins

https://witl.com/latest-shortage-coins- ... -get-them/

Safeway by me no cash transactions. Even at self check out

Family dollar , sign, coin crisis.exact change encouraged. Also needed $1,5 too.

hobo finds wrote:Safeway by me no cash transactions. Even at self check out

No cash transactions at all self-checkouts at my local Walmart this morning. Not sure about the cashier checkouts. The elderly attendant at self-checkout said it was because of a “money shortage at the store”.

Im thinking of turning in my , ugly copppet. Also the 56-59 roolls if nickels. Since I cannot ßell either.