National Coin Shortage?

By: Sarah Son

Recently, I noticed a sign at a café advising customers to pay with either exact change or debit/credit. Here’s an example of these signs you may have seen before.

After a quick Google search, I learned that this coin shortage is another unanticipated effect of COVID-19. But why a coin shortage? Due to the pandemic’s safety guidelines, there haven’t been as many employees working in the U.S. Mint as there used to be. In addition, many coins that would be in circulation had it not been for the pandemic, are stuck in people’s homes. The reason for this is because most people are making transactions online, rather than in-person, in fear of catching the virus. For the same reasons, people have been avoiding banks and coin-to-cash kiosks. 

As a result, the regular flow of coins has dropped significantly. So to be honest, this isn’t really a coin shortage. America has enough coins, but they’re not circulating as quickly as they did before. This is a problem because businesses and banks order coins to pay change to their customers, yet the Federal Reserve (which collects coins and tracks coin circulation) doesn’t have enough coins to provide for everyone’s needs. Many more groups of people are afflicted by this coin shortage, including unbanked Americans (they use cash for almost 50% of their purchases), small businesses (making exact change the only payment option that will lose customers), and laundromats (quarters are needed to exchange for customer’s bills). 

What can you do to help? When asked for in-person payment, especially from small businesses, opt for exact change if you’ve got it on hand. Even a penny makes a difference!