Untitled

COVID-19 Is Causing a National Coin Shortage

www.vice.com

The coronavirus is causing a cash and coin shortage in the United States.

Banks, laundromats, grocery stores, and retail stores across the country are telling customers that, if they’re paying in cash, they need to bring exact change. All over, ATMs are empty. Last week, a small paper sign taped to the door of a Philadelphia Rite Aid warned customers they needed exact change if they paid in cash. “Dear Customer: Due to a Nationwide shortage of coins and small bills, we would appreciate exact change if possible. We will exchange your change for larger denomination bills,” the sign read…

According to the U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, cash is in short supply precisely because it isn’t moving around.

“What’s happened is that with the partial closure of the economy, the flow of coins through the economy has…kind of stopped,” Powell said in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee on June 17. “The places where you go to give your coins and get credit, cash…those have not been working. Stores have been closed. So the whole system of flow has kind of come to a stop. We’re well aware of this,” Powell said.

The Federal Reserve also doesn’t know how long it will take things to go back to normal. “I’m afraid we can’t yet determine [how] long it will take for coin inventories to return to more normal levels,” a spokesperson for the Federal Reserve told Motherboard in an email.

The Federal Reserve told banks and businesses across the country to prepare for a coin shortage that may last several months…

In a June 11 press release, the Federal Reserve acknowledged the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the supply chain and normal circulation patterns of coins in the United States.

“In the past few months, coin deposits from depository institutions to the Federal Reserve have declined significantly and the U.S. Mint’s production of coin also decreased due to measures put in place to protect its employees,” said the press release. In a June 30 press release, it announced it had formed a task force to address the issue and will work with partners such as the American Bankers Association and the United States Mint.

The U.S. Mint said it had taken steps to safeguard the health and safety of its workers during the pandemic and that those precautions had affected the production of coinage.