Short Stuff: The Great American Coin Shortage of 2020

In addition to all the lousy things that’s come out of the Coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. is also experiencing a coin shortage thanks to a stalled-out economic system that normally circulates coins.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the short stuff on Josh, there's Chuck.
Jerry's over there. Let's get going. This is short stuff
about shortages of coins. Shortly. Yeah, hey, can you spare
some change? Uh? No? Why not? Um? What was it?
I can't remember who said? Think the line is? Haven't
your head? Is a coin shortage? Okay, let's try this again. Hey,

(00:28):
Mr Keney spares some change? No? Why not? Haven't you heard?
There's a what line? Coin shortage? There's a coin shortage?
And that summarizes our TV show success quite nicely, and
scene and scene, so we're there. Really is a coin shortage?

(00:49):
Or dramatization was a real one or based on real life,
a true story in the United States. Um our listeners
in Australia and New Zealand and UK and Germany who
knew you know, Um, did we hear from a German?
Is that what happened? Uh? They said, yes, we're listening
to you in Germany, okay, And they said cryptically and watching.

(01:13):
And what what some of you guys who are in
America might not realize is that if you went into
a store, the stores that are open right now during
the pandemic here in the United States, you might find
a sign that says, please pay with exact change or
use a credit card because we ain't got no change
for you, uh, if you need it. And it's actually

(01:33):
kind of becoming a bit of a problem and a
conspiracy theory over here. Yeah, so there are coins out there. Um.
The U. S. Treasury says that there were almost forty
eight billion dollars worth of coins in circulation in April
of this year, which is about four million more than
last year. But the deal is is those those coins

(01:55):
aren't moving there. They got no movement going on like
they usually do for a few reasons. Obviously, when businesses
closing and banks sort of closing and reducing their hours,
and things like arcades and laun dramats and public transit
where you use a lot of coins, and convenience stores,
when all that stuff closes up, it's gonna put a

(02:16):
serious dentt in the coin flow. It is because I mean,
all of these these businesses that are especially coin heavy, Um,
they they act as kind of like part of the
circulatory system that moves coins through the economy. And if
they're not closed, meaning they're not accepting coins, you can't
let the coins pass through them, so instead they go

(02:38):
back home to people's houses, which is where a lot
of them are right now. Um. Also, simultaneous to that,
Chuck the U s Mint was like, well, we don't
want to put our people at risk, so we're actually
gonna slow production and furlough a bunch of people because
we don't want them on the job giving COVID to
one another, which is kind of sensible. And then beyond that,

(02:59):
even if you do have a business, a lot of
people are saying, you know, they want like contact lists,
they don't want cash passing back and forth. They'll maybe
shove a credit card reader in your face from a
poll that it's attached to and they'll say, stick your
credit card in that. Um not doing a lot of
cash or asking for exact change. And again that just

(03:22):
means there are coins out there, they're just not flowing
through the economy like they normally do. Right, So for
all these reasons, there is an actual a coin shortage,
not a coin shortage, and that they don't exist, but
a coin shortage, and that they're not flowing through like
they're supposed to. Like you were saying, which I mean,
if you were, um, a thinking person you might buy

(03:44):
this time, have thought who cares? It doesn't matter, but
it does for a lot of reasons. And at first
is that UM. There are a lot of stores, kinds
of stories like you said, UM transit, public transit UM,
you know, the public transit store where you go to
buy public transits and coins UM, and then laundromats. There

(04:06):
are certain kinds of businesses that heavily rely on the
free and open flow of coinage UM for their businesses
to function. And if you go into one of those
businesses and they say you need to pay with exact change,
is that okay? Some of their customers are gonna be like, no,
it's not okay. I want I don't have exact change,
and I want my change back. Some of those stores

(04:27):
have tried to get creative and have said, how about
rather than us give you change back, we donated on
your behalf to a charity, like you kind of round
up your bill to have some of that donated. That
makes sense, But if you're kind of going through hard times,
which a lot of us are, you want that change back.
So then some stores have said, okay, all right, we

(04:49):
don't actually have physical coins here to give you change,
But we can give you a store gift card with
that amount on it. How about that? And some customers said,
that's fine, whatever, But I can't imag magine how much
of a dent in a store's efficiency. Stopping and adding
like thirty eight cents to a gift card for every
third customer who wants to pay with cash is doing

(05:10):
to to The stores in the United States that are,
by the way, are already struggling because they have opened
up in this pandemic um simply because they need to
to keep the lights on. Yeah, or some stores are saying,
how about in lieu of the thirty seven sins, I
compose a poem in which I integrate the words thirty
seven cents and I will sing it to you, right,

(05:34):
or maybe it takes a lot of time. Maybe our
head cash, your Bucky will give you thirty eight cents
where the pot from his stash. I wonder what thirty
eight since where the pot looks like? I don't know.
Probably that's a lot, right, sure, from everything I've read.
Should we take a break? Yes, all right, we'll be
right back with more coin shortage. Well, now we're on

(05:56):
the road, driving in your truck. Want to learn a
thing or two from Josh man Chuck and stuff you
should know. All right, all right, so we got a

(06:21):
coin shortage and ain't flowing. The National Grocer's Association and
some other retail trade groups sent a letter to Jerome Powell,
the Fed Reserve chair and Steve how do you pronounce
that hard nucan the manuch? No, that's the mooch Scar

(06:46):
Moucci that you're thinking of. Oh, that's right. Uh. He's
the Treasury Secretary. And they sent a letter in June saying, hey,
you're rationing these coin shipments to the banks, and that's
really threatening our business because it's you know, we come
from a place of privilege to be able to sit
around a joke about this because I'm like, oh, I'll
just put everything on my m X because I get
sky miles that are now useless. But here's the deal.

(07:10):
If you have a household income below twenty dollars, you
are paying for cash. Uh, you're paying for of your
transactions and cash. Right. This is why finally we reach
why it really actually matters, because there's a significant number
of Americans out there who depend on having cash handy.
Because the banks have said we don't think you're worthy

(07:33):
of having a bank account, and the credit card companies
have said, we're not going to extend you any credit.
So all you've got is cash. That's your only option.
And so if you aren't if the store is trying
to give you some some business or run around about
domint donating your thirty eight since the charity, no, you
probably want that thirty eight cents back, and not having
that thirty eight cents in circulation is a big problem

(07:54):
for a large number of people. Yeah, here's a couple
of other stats that may be surprised zing if you
always just throw down your credit card. Uh, forty five
to sixty of sales at all grocery stores and comedian
stores or cash, and uh for ten dollars or less.
About half of all transactions period in the US are
paid in cash if they're ten dollars or less. Yes.

(08:17):
And also, I mean there's a plenty of like gas
stations and convenience stores out there that have us a
longstanding policy that you know, nothing under five dollars or
three dollars or whatever can be put on a card
because as credit cards piece can can really add up
for a store like that. Um So now they have
no choice. If they don't have change to give out,
they have to take that credit card payment. So that's

(08:39):
dending their bottom line to the little um small business
owners as well. It's just a huge cluster that needs
to be fixed, Chuck. Yeah, and the fixed sort of
there isn't a real fix right now because everything that's
going on. You can't just put some artificial You can't
just like flood the market with coins because the problem

(08:59):
is they're not flowing anyway. It's not that they aren't there.
So the real solution is just eventually things will slowly
return to normal as far as coin circulation goes, just
like everything else returning to normal. Um. But they are
ramping up production of coins because they, I guess heard
the letter and they don't want to short change the
banks at least, and I think the usual is a

(09:22):
billion coins a month. They're now producing one point two
billion coins a month at least in June, and then
one point three five billion a month for the rest
of the year. Yeah, which I mean that's a substantial
increase for sure. Yeah, um, because yeah that we're talking
about three hundred and fifty million additional coins a month
for the rest of that's a huge uptick, so they're

(09:44):
definitely responding, But it seems like what everybody's saying is, hey,
you with the coin jar and you're cupboard, like you're
you're the problem, Like go take your coin jar to
the coin star. I think they um the FED actually
specifically aimed coin star as a place where you should
take your coins and trade them in for a gift

(10:05):
card or some cash or something like that. Or if
you don't want to pay whatever fee coin star um charges,
you can actually go into the bank take your coins.
They will be happy to see you for the first
time in their entire banking history showing up with a
jar full of coins, being like, can I have this
in exchange for some bills UM? That will help get
it back into circulation as well. Or you could just

(10:26):
start spending them like pay in coins um out of
your your coin jar that you have at home, reintroduce
it into the economy, in fact, is another way to
put it. Yeah, I can't remember when we talked about this,
but we talked about coins before and taking into the
bank and the fact that Emily and I when we
were first together and just broke as you could imagine,

(10:48):
would go on change dates, because we would go to
that coin star machine and dump them in there. And
I think that's when you said that you didn't do
coin star because of the fee. If I'm not mistaking,
the sounds like something I would say, Yeah, it was
a long time ago though, yeah, well still the same.
It's it'll be etched on my tombstone. He wouldn't pay

(11:10):
the fee. Um, So you can do something by spending coins.
That's a big one. Um. And there's actually a hashtag
that this coin task force that got put together came
up with called get coin Moving, not even coins, get
coin Moving, brick love lamp. It's it's pretty bad. Um.

(11:31):
And here's a little tidbit for you to chew on
while you're going through your coin jar um, trying to
figure out what you're gonna buy first with it. A
coin in the United States remains in circulation for up
to thirty years, So all those coins that are pumping
full of the economy with they're going to be around
for a while, whereas the paper bills that we have
usually only last about a year and a half. Wow,

(11:56):
that's it for sure, stuff, chuck, don't you think I
think so? Well? The short Stuff says everybody Giddeah. Stuff
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