Coin shortage sweeps the nation... wth?

[Chukker Veteran]

When I go to the store, being kind of old school, I preferred the cashier ring up my purchase, and after taking my money they bag it up. If I don't have the exact change, no big deal. My old neighborhood grocery was torn down, now Wal Mart is the closest around. I grudgingly learned how to operate the scan-it-yourself machines, grumbling about how doing so was costing cashiers' their jobs but here we go. Stick the bills in and it spits out the change.

This week, they changed the machines to card only, no more cash payments. What the heck? I'm wondering.

When I go in Aldi's, they have a sign up, please pay exact amount. If you don't you are encouraged to round up the total to prevent your getting any change. It was only a request, but I'm starting to wonder.

Today I get a notice from my bank, Regions:
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The Federal Reserve is experiencing a decrease in circulation of all coin denominations it supplies to financial institutions. Regions is now accepting, counting and depositing coins of any denomination for a limited time with no associated fee.* In addition to depositing coins at Regions, be sure to use your change whenever you spend to help the many people and businesses who rely on coins for cash transactions.

Here are some ways you can contribute to coin circulation:

• Start spending your coins.
• Use exact change when making purchases.
• Deposit coins at your financial institutions.
• Redeem coins at coin kiosks.

Thank you for helping us get coins moving again.
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I had the idea that pennies were in trouble, each one cost more copper than one cent is worth. It would take a lot of getting used to for me if we go to strictly paper money, or worse, plastic debit cards. I like to have enough cash to last the week, and be to be able to buy whatever I want without a credit or debit card privy to every transaction. It's not that I'm out buying porn, it just seems like a basic privacy issue.

Any thoughts?

 

[92tide]

all the stores around here have been that way since the beginning of covid. i remember hearing that there was a huge coin shortage

 

[DzynKingRTR]

So if say someone were to have, oh I don't know, a gatorade bottle full of coins. Could a bank give me, I mean fictional person, twice the amount of cash?

 

[Crimson1967]

I rarely use cash. I get rewards on my credit cards and pay them off every month.

 

[Chukker Veteran]

So if say someone were to have, oh I don't know, a gatorade bottle full of coins. Could a bank give me, I mean fictional person, twice the amount of cash?

I don’t think it’s come to that…

 

[B1GTide]

Our bank will still only accept coins if they are rolled. I have hundreds of dollars in coins but will throw them in the garbage before I roll them.

 

[Chukker Veteran]

With a locally owned store that you know the owner I think you are doing them a favor paying cash. The card costs them a few cents out of every dollar they get that way if my understanding is correct.

 

[Chukker Veteran]

Our bank will still only accept coins if they are rolled. I have hundreds of dollars in coins but will throw them in the garbage before I roll them.

What are you doing posting when Ohio State has a close one on tv?

 

[Chukker Veteran]

You must be multi talented

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I only use a debit card, so I didn't know there was a shortage.

Our bank will still only accept coins if they are rolled. I have hundreds of dollars in coins but will throw them in the garbage before I roll them.

Do the supermarkets there not have coin machines which accept them and give back bank notes?

 

[B1GTide]

I only use a debit card, so I didn't know there was a shortage.
Do the supermarkets there not have coin machines which accept them and give back bank notes?

I live in a tiny town - only one food store and there is nothing "super" about it.

 

[Chukker Veteran]

The bank here was offering to take them for credit and count and roll them themselves. I would expect my bank, whoever that might be, to count and roll a sack of coins for no charge every once in a while.

 

[MobtownK]

I might take mine in - also Regions.

I helped cause the shortage. Snack at school is 50cent/day so I got rolls of quarters when school started.

I hate carrying cash unless on vacation.

 

[TexasBama]

The only time I use coins is if I can't find a slotted screwdriver

 

[Padreruf]

I only use coins to mark my ball on the green...I rarely even carry cash anymore. Strange world...

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I use no-alcohol gas in my tools and the pump at the station where I buy it doesn't have a card reader, so I have to borrow cash from my wife to buy gas. We have folk who deliver eggs to us every two weeks, so she keeps cash for that. We are not the ones hoarding coins. When I was in Austria in 1969, the exchange rate was 26 schillings to a dollar. Not only was it difficult to determine what price you were paying (no pocket calculators back then), but paying the correct amount in schillinge notes, coins and groschen coins, was an impossible mental gymnastic. As a result, I'd come home every day with my pockets sagging with coins, about to pull my pants down. After about a week, I moved over into Germany and, at the time, it was about four D-Marks to a dollar, so they were essentially a quarter. Well, I can divide by 4 pretty quickly, so the days of baggy pockets was in my rear view mirror...

 

[Go Bama]

It's not that I'm out buying porn, it just seems like a basic privacy issue.

The jig is up. You are out buying porn. It's all over the interwebs now. Privacy issue ... indeed.

 

[tattooguy21]

Depends on which way you want to go.

There's the "war on cash" theory, which at this point is more law than theory, though coins aren't usually part of that, at least not at this juncture.

 

[Tider n LA]

I probably have 2k in coins just sitting. I think I will just let them sit.